Free Rina
by roughdiamond5
Summary: Sequel to Our Genie, Rina. When Fang meets his dad, the flock and Rina go to live with him in a mansion. What will happen? Will the couples ever be more than friends? And why can't Rina read their servant's minds? Note inside, please read!
1. Chapter 1

**Wow, I can't believe you guys actually wanted me to make a sequel! Once again, thanks so much to the people who read the first story in this series, Our Genie, Rina. I hope this doesn't disappoint you or anything. This story will have a good amount of surprises and interesting turns in it, but this chapter is mainly a recap, plus it explains what happened after chapter 12. So here you go! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I read somewhere that we don't have to do the disclaimer, but I want to anyways! So here goes: I don't own Maximum Ride, her flock, the School, Ari, or the entire "save the world" concept. However, I do own this plot, Rina, a few OCs that'll come up later, and Ari 2 (sadly) so it all evens out. Oh well, better not waste time telling you what I do and don't own, on with the story!**

**Chapter 1: Iggy's Birthday (I'm very, very sorry to people who hate recaps, but I'm going to have to include one! Don't kill me)**

**POV Rina**

All of a sudden, the radio clicked on and my favorite song started. Despite the rock and roll, I groaned and rolled deeper in the covers, trying to block it out. Then I collected myself and remembered why I was up this early in the first place. I had to get up early, go downstairs, and make breakfast for the flock before Iggy could. I disabled his alarm last night, but you could never be sure which mornings he decided to wake up without the alarm. He needed to be completely surprised. Today, May 29, was his birthday.

And shockingly enough, this was the first year we were going to celebrate. The other four years the flock knew me, I never realized his birthday early enough. Plus those weren't as important compared to this one. Iggy was going to turn 18. For one whole month he would be two years older than little old sixteen-year-old-seventeen-in-June me.

Wait, did I just say that I had been with the flock for four years? I suppose it's true. It seemed like only yesterday that I was kissing Iggy on that beach in Oregon after we blew up the School and made Ari 2 a genie. And then there was the morning after that changed everything. I suggested they settle down and go to school of something.

At first Max and Fang were worried, the little kids were all for it, and Iggy would do whatever I wanted. They were used to being on the run and living in different places, so why not a little change? It's not like they had anyone to run from anymore. Max and Fang were just thinking about the last time they did that. And then they realized that I could do anything for them, so if they didn't like it, I could make it work for them. I didn't have to, but I would.

After a big round of debate, they agreed. I took them to a little town in Colorado called Woodland Park. It was a sleepy place, not a lot of business, and a puny downtown, but the outskirts were all small houses, forests, and Manitou Lake, which was perfect for the flock. I bought (coughmadecoughcough) us a house that was half a mile away from any other homes, which was convenient, because then they could fly over the trees and have no one see them. I still added protection, just in case, though. The house itself was pretty roomy, with a bedroom for all of us and an entire unfinished basement that served as the rec room. Plus there was a huge kitchen and dining room because we all eat so much.

And then there was school. Everyone wanted me to homeschool them, but they needed to be out among other people so they wouldn't think we were weird or anything because they never saw our parents, only a band of kids and teens. So I enrolled everyone into Woodland Park Middle School and Columbine Elementary. Iggy was being very stubborn about school, so I skipped a grade despite my age so I was in the same classes as him and the same grade as Iggy, Fang, and Max. Max and Fang didn't know, but I put them in the same classes too. When the time came I would put Nudge and Gazzy in the same ones too (I'm so evil, aren't I?) Everyone was nervous for their first day of school, but they eventually made friends with various people. Except Fang, but he was never Mr. Social. He mainly hung out with Max's friend's boyfriends.

I suppose they had a lot of fun in school. Their grades were pretty good, and it was nice that the little kids were making human friends again. For us older kids, we never separated. Some boys kinda liked me and Max, and a few girls tried flirting with Fang and Iggy. Quite a few asked us out or hinted that they would like to be asked out, but we always said no. They were all confused, because they thought that we all lived together (adopted) and were therefore up for grabs. We couldn't show too much emotion towards each other, which was sad because we really couldn't wait until we got home. But when prom came around, you can guess who we all went with (using the "just friends" excuse, we were pretty much covered, despite a few jealous onlookers).

Things were okay, but the scariest thing was that _nothing happened_. In four years, the only thing that happened was everyone moving from grade to grade. Max, Fang, Iggy, and I only had one more year left of high school, which meant one more year of having our future planned out for us. Fang and Iggy got jobs at the sports store (which meant gunpowder galore!), and Max just sent in an application to the dinner down by the school, and they only got those jobs to keep people from wondering how we lived with a mom (I made an older version of Max to be our mom. Ironic, huh?) who no one saw work, only pick us up from school. But not a lot happened. I was used to that after years of being in an iPod, but the flock was never used to it, and I could only entertain them in so many ways. That's why today was a special day. It's not every day your boyfriend turns eighteen.

Oh yeah, I should probably get up and cook breakfast before Iggy beat me to it. I bounded out of bead, unaware of the sudden headache I got from getting up too fast, and silently stumbled down the stairs. And after all that silence, after all that unheard clumsiness, the pantry door just had to pick today to creak. Thankfully, no one heard it, and I proceeded with breakfast. Let's see, they've got big appetites, so why not bacon? They all like it. And hash browns, especially for Angel, and Nudge, who was still scarred from when Fang ate that "desert rat". Eggs, Iggy always liked those (ha ha, bird kids, eggs, I get it). And juice, of course. Muffins, bagels, and Gazzy did like that time I made pancakes.

Soon the kitchen was full of sizzling and steam. I was almost done with the feast when Iggy stumbled into the kitchen.

"What's all this?" he mumbled, still sleepy.

"Well, today's your special day. You should get to sleep in and not cook for once!"

"What, isn't it everyone's special day?"

"No, we're not celebrating the fact that school's out."

"Oh, so I got fired?" I guess I forgot to mention that the management at the sports store wasn't exactly the nicest bunch.

"Nice try. But I arranged it so that you have today off." The timer beeped at that moment, and I took the muffins out if the oven

"But what's the occasion?" I think he was awake by now, and very, very curious.

"Happy birthday, Iggy." I kissed his cheek and he smiled and pulled me in for more. Thankfully I wasn't cooking at the moment, and we stayed like that for who-knows-how-long. Then the flock staggered into the room to see us.

"Jeez, we get it, you can stop eating each other's faces now." Max whined, like she doesn't want to do the same to Fang. Then they noticed the food and all was forgotten. They fell on the food like erasers who haven't eaten in a week. Apparently I did well, because they didn't stop eating until I pulled them away.

"Can't you wait until you're sitting?" I asked. Everyone fought to sit on the stools, the floor (since there were only three stools), or in Gazzy's case, the countertop. "That isn't what I meant and you know it. Go to the dinning room and you can eat." I bet I sounded like a mom, because I was rewarded with a few smirks as everyone raced towards the door and into the next room. I turned to Iggy.

"Could I have some help carrying the plates in? You're the only one who won't pig out."

"I don't know, I haven't tasted it yet, but I can't wait until I do. They haven't eaten like that since we were starving." He commented as he hoisted up a platter. "Honestly, do you have any flaws?"

"Well, I'm kinda clumsy." I confessed as we started taking in dishes. Eventually Iggy was the only one taking them in, because I had to stay and make sure no one started eating. Once all the dishes were out, I said "Dig in!" They didn't need to hear anything else. It was like before, only I wasn't stopping them. Iggy had a seat, and after one bite, he ate as fast as the rest of them. I must admit, it was pretty good, speaking as the cook.

Eventually they slowed down a little, which was good because I was almost out of food. They had more time between bites, and they leaned back in their chairs, clearly stuffed.

"All in favor of Rina cooking say 'Aye'" Max suggested.

"Aye" I looked up to see everyone raising their hands. Even Fang, surprisingly enough, I thought he wouldn't show he liked it, as Mr. Tall, Dark, and Silent. Iggy had his hand up too, looking at me with pride.

"All right, but Iggy's still in charge of cooking. I'm only second in command." I mumbled. I didn't want Iggy to loose his post over me.

"Fine. But why did you cook so much today?" Nudge asked.

Iggy answered for me. "Rina said today's my eighteenth birthday." Everyone perked up at this, and a few said "Happy birthday!" I silenced them.

"Okay guys, all birthday plans aside, I have a special treat for all of you. You're all going to meet your parents today." The room was instantly silent. Everyone was frozen with shock.

"Our parents?" Angel was the first to speak. "Are you sure? Shouldn't we stay for Iggy's birthday?"

"Positive. You guys ought to meet your parents, and why not today?" I sent a separate thought to everyone but Iggy. "C'mon, guys, I need everyone out of the house for the day so we can have a big party tonight. It'll be fine, I promise."

"All right, we'll go!" Nudge was the first to catch on. "I always wanted to meet them anyways."

"But I already know my parents are Jeb and Dr. Martinez." Max said. She wasn't complaining, just stating a fact.

I was prepared. "Well, you haven't seen them in a while. I think you should see how they're doing."

"Fair enough. But I met my parents already! And I don't really want to go see them again." Iggy said. He didn't sound too happy to think of how his parents had tried to make him a news star.

"Stick around until everyone else leaves, I've got a special place for you to go to." I told him.

"I don't want to meet mine." Fang said suddenly. Everyone was startled.

"Why not?" Max asked.

"My mom's a drug addict, remember? I don't want to meet some woman who had me by accident." Dang, I hoped it wouldn't come to this.

"Fang, I'm sorry, but your mom is dead. She died a week after you were born. You'll be meeting your dad. And you might want to explain the wings and the flock to him because he might need to know." Everyone was silent for a minute.

Max was the first to respond. She put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Fang." Instead of shrugging her off and looking away, he turned towards her and looked into her eyes. Fang has gotten a little better at displaying emotions lately, especially with Max. Must be the job, since he has to help customers and look like he actually cares.

"It's okay, I should have seen it coming."

"Well, it's settled then! We're going to meet our parents!" Gazzy sounded excited to meet the people who abandoned him and his sister for money. Maybe he was just glad to know his were alive.

"Well, Gazzy, Angel, since you seem so eager to get going, come here." I said. They stood in front of me. "Okay, guys, your parents are Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. Just go right on in, the door isn't locked." Maybe I should mention that they couldn't afford a lock. No, they could find out on their own. Better not rain on their parade. I held my hands out in front of them, and they disappeared.

"Who's next?" I asked them.

"Me! Me!" Nudge was practically jumping up and down with excitement. She bobbed over to me.

"Fine, you. When you ring the doorbell, a younger version of you will answer the door. You'll find out who she is later." I said with a smug grin. "Ask for Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, and say you were the baby that was taken from them fifteen years ago. You can figure it out from there." Nudge was still trying to figure out who the younger version of her was when she vanished.

"Max?" I beckoned. She took her time, confident that her parents (well, her mom and sister, at least) were nice people. "Well, you know the drill. Do you want to see Jeb, or will you be too busy devouring chocolate cookies as fast as you can?"

She scowled. "I'll just see mom and Ella, thanks."

I shrugged. "Your choice. Have fun!" then she disappeared too. Fang was already waiting, an unsure look on his face.

"Fang, you have nothing to worry about. Your dad is cool. You might even like him." Iggy cracked up next to me.

"Oh, say it isn't so! Heaven forbid that Fang should like anyone besides Max!" I couldn't help but grin a little at his statement. Fang didn't look so amused.

"Shut up, Figgy. Anything else?" he asked me.

"Well, you should find out the biggest surprise for yourself. Just ask the servants for Mr. Denton, they'll let you in." Before he could let the "servant" part sink in, I poofed him to the mansion his dad lived in.

"Well, where do I go?" Iggy asked, still grinning from his comment.

"Wherever you want to, as long as you take me."

"Huh? I thought you'd take me to Fiji or something."

"And let you watch all the shirtless women perform their sex dance in front of you? No chance. You can be tempted, you know. Besides, deep down you don't want Fiji as a birthday present."

"And how do you know what I want for a birthday present?"

"Ex-genie, remember?"

"Oh yeah. So what do I want?"

"You want to spend a day alone with me."

He blushed. "So maybe I do. But would you?"

"Is this an invitation?"

"Maybe."

"Then of course I'll go!"

"Fine then, let's go." He smiled and offered me his arm. I took it, and we went to the car.

**Well, did you like it? Or totally hate it? Please review, I want to know! And I'm sorry it was so slow, but it'll pick up a lot after the next chapter. Things will have some interesting turns towards the end, but for now I have to explain stuff.**

**Please review! They make me feel so loved!**


	2. Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Max

**Okay, all you reviewers out there rock! I'd like to thank fang-is-yummy, DarkBlade98, Maximum Ride all the way, DigiNinMon, and maximumride4ever for reviewing, and maximumride4ever, Bubble Blower, and Maximum Ride all the way get uber-huge thanks for putting me on favorites and/or alerts! Hopefully I'll get more reviews later (hint hint), but for now I'm just happy that no one told me they hated it.**

**Well, I guess you want to know what happened to everyone on Iggy's birthday! So here's chapter 2. Enjoy! Don't throw too many tomatoes, please!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't want it, I'm happy with my story already, thanks! I own Rina and the plot and a few other OCs, though, so don't steal them! Oh wait, you don't know the OCs, so you won't know if you're stealing or not. Well, you'll see in this story or another!**

**Chapter 2: Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Max**

**POV Angel**

Gazzy and I were really eager to meet our parents for the first time, even though they gave us away for money. Gazzy told me all about the box the whitecoats gave them that showed the check, so I was pretty much filled in. But despite our excitement, we were both kinda nervous. Especially me. Why did they give us up? Would they be glad to see us? Would they even believe us? Sometimes I wish I could tell the future, like Rina.

After Rina made us vanish, we appeared at a gray neighborhood. It looked like everything was made of cement and asphalt, except for the dead grass that took up space in front of the buildings. Everything looked extra dreary, even in the mid-morning sun. A tall, colorless, skinny, three story structure towered over us. I think it was supposed to be a house. Some brown windows and metal fire escapes covered the outside, and it didn't look very pleasant for a person to live. We must be in the slums of New York or something.

"That must be where Rina wants us to go." Gazzy pointed to the building.

"But how do we find our parents?" I asked.

"Maybe Rina knows they'll answer the door. Only one way to find out!" Gazzy marched up the dead grass with me practically glued to his side. Remembering Rina's words at the last minute, we barged through the front door.

We were greeted by a cold, dark, dirty hallway with one window in the end, next to the stairs. Two doors were on either side of the walls, and when we looked to our left, we saw a room without a door, and about five people staring at us from what looked to be the cramped living room. There was a blonde, petite woman sitting on the brick seat by the fireplace with a book in her lap. A man with big blue eyes sat next to her, his arm around her shoulder. There were two teens, a boy with jet black hair, and a girl with brown hair, sitting cross-legged in front of the couple, apparently listening to the woman read aloud. They were all thinking along the lines of "Who the hell are they?" Except one man. He was a really skinny man with a gray beard, and he was wearing scruffy hobo clothes. He got his shotgun from the side of the broken armchair he was sitting in, and pointed it at us.

"Put your hands up and tell me what you're doing here." His voice was as rough as his clothes. Our hands shot up, and I spoke.

"Uh, hi, I'm Angel. This is my big brother, Gazzy. We're looking for Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, please?" I better see how they respond before I control them. They became inflexible, and the blue-eyed man next to the woman took his hand off her.

"What do you want with them?" He asked, with a stiff attitude.

"We need to talk to them. It's urgent." Gazzy said. Those must be the magic words, because the man and the woman got up.

"Come with us." The woman said. Her tone was pretty harsh for someone who looked so sweet. "_What do they want with us?_" she thought. They're the Stewarts? I sent a thought to Gazzy. We let our hands down and followed them up three flights of stairs to the attic. This must be where they lived. There was a small mattress in the corner, a tiny furnace in another, and a circle-shaped window. As soon as the door was closed, they turned to us. The man pinned Gazzy to the wall, and the woman pinned me next to him.

"Who sent you here?" Mr. Stewart asked, his tone a step away from hysteria. "The FBI? The IRS? I told you already, we paid what we could! Or are you selling something? We don't want any." He shook Gazzy. "Answer me!"

"_Should we tell them now?_" I asked Gazzy in my mind.

"_I think we should, before he breaks my back._" He sent back. Then he spoke. "Mr. Stewart, I don't know how to ask you this, but did you and your wife have two children, a boy and a girl, two years apart?"

They were speechless for three seconds. Then Mrs. Stewart spoke. "But that…that was ten years ago! We thought no one would remember!"

"We do. But did you give them away to a company called Itex for ten thousand dollars each?" Gazzy pressed on, frowning at the memory of that check.

"We had no choice. They were going to take them away anyways. But they knew we had nothing. The bank was after us. They said they'd make it easier and pay us." A tear escaped from her eye, and Gazzy and I felt a wave of huge relief wash over us. "We never saw our kids again. But they wouldn't want to come back. Not to live here, not to meet their poor parents. But what's it to ya?" She recollected herself before she gave too much away. But she gave us all we needed to hear.

"It means a lot to us, actually." I said. "We're those kids that disappeared."

Once again, they were struck dumb. Mrs. Stewart (well, okay, mom) was thinking hopeful thoughts, examining us carefully, deciding that we were her kids. Dad, on the other hand, didn't believe us one bit, still convinced that the hospital sent us here to get them to pay for when we were born.

"Come on, dad, we really are your kids! And we're not selling anything either. We don't want any money. We want to see you!" I responded to his thoughts. Maybe I shouldn't have, because they looked at me like I was insane.

"Uh, Itex kinda did some stuff to us when you gave us away."

"What kind of stuff?" Dad was still suspicious.

Gazzy sighed. "Well, Angel has the most superpowers. She can read and control minds, talk to fish, and breathe underwater. They only gave me the ability to mimic other people's voices, and there's something wrong with my digestive system, hence my name. And they kinda gave both of us something else…" I think they needed some proof.

"Mom, you're thinking that we're very strange but definitely your kids, and dad, you're thinking that we're mutant freaks who can't possible be related to you." And to make things more interesting, Gazzy did a perfect imitation of dad.

"These kids are mutant freaks who can't possibly be related to us!" I giggled while mom and dad exchanged glances.

"Okay, but I still need proof that you're our kids."

"Tim, they have my hair and your eyes!" It turns out I got the Bambi eyes from mom, because she did them to dad, and it looked so much like mine, only hers were brown. Dad examined us carefully. Then he came to his conclusion.

"You're our kids! Maggie, can you believe it? Our kids!" He was pure joy, and it only got better when we hugged them both.

"But how did you find us?" Mom said through tears while stroking my hair. "We erased the records as best we could!"

"We have a friend who knew where you were." Gazzy said. It's a good thing he didn't give much away, although I could tell they were curious.

We had a great day with our parents. We explained the wings to them, and the school. They were outraged, but they were poor and they couldn't do much anyways. They showed us the people who lived with them (the teens were runaways and the man made money off of the rent) and told us all about our baby stories. It turns out they loved each other very much, and they would have gladly kept us, but they had no money, the government was after them for not paying taxes and bills, and living on the run and in rags with no food would be a bad way to raise children (too bad we already experienced it!). But our parents were really cool, and we had a lot of fun. We almost didn't want to go when Rina sent a clone and said it was time to go have dinner.

**POV Nudge**

What was that Rina said about a younger version of me? I barely heard her say the rest when I was at this house on a hill. It was only one floor, but it was painted in all sorts of bright colors, it had a zillion plants, and the grass around it was green and alive. It looked inviting enough, but what was inside it? Were the people evil or workers for the School, or were they nice people who loved their kid even though they didn't know who she was for years? I wish Gazzy were here. He wouldn't be afraid, he's comfort me, and when I felt better we'd march up to the door and ring the doorbell together. Or Max could come and comfort me. Or Rina, since she could tell me if they were nice or not and whether they'd like me. Well, there's only one way to find out.

I hiked up the steep cobblestone path to the house. I paused, then rang the doorbell, unaware of what I would find behind it.

Sure enough, when the door opened, I saw a younger version of me staring up at me. We had the same eyes, same hair, same skin tone, same physical type, and I bet if you dusted our fingerprints, you wouldn't be able to tell who was who. She seemed just as surprised, if not more, to see me, and then she recovered and asked "Whadaya want?"

"Uh, I need to talk with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson?" Wow, I remembered the name!

"And what do you want with them?"

"Uh, it's kinda urgent. Can I talk to them, like, right now?"

"They don't want to be bugged." Jeez, how stubborn is she? She started to close the door, but I caught it before it closed entirely. She stopped, surprised at my strength.

"Look, I'll level with you. Have your parents ever told you of a time when they had a baby girl named Monique?"

"Maybe." She sounded interested, at least.

"And then some jerks stole her?"

"Yeah, she disappeared before I was born." She agreed.

"I need to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson about that baby girl."

"What specifically?" Great, now she was just snooping!

"We might have found her. So will you let me talk to them?"

"Yeah, sure. But come inside, they don't like bugs." I stepped in after her onto a woven rug. She left down a hallway, and after looking for emergency exits I studied my surroundings. On my right was a coat closet and some shoes, and the left had a sitting room that was connected to the kitchen. There were pictures of the girl everywhere, ranging from a baby girl to pictures taken yesterday, from carnivals to birthday parties. There was one I was particularly interested in, which was a baby girl that was being held by a man and a woman. The woman looked darker in skin, with the same unmanageable hair me and that girl had. The man was lighter, with short, straight brown hair and deep brown eyes. My eyes, I realized. Those must be her parents. And they're probably mine, too!

At that moment, the girl came in with the same people in the picture. The woman's hair was a little longer, and the man had a few more wrinkles, but they were pretty much the same people. They eyed me suspiciously.

"All right, what do you know about our Monique?" the dad was the first to speak.

"Well, shouldn't we take this into the sitting room? You might want to be seated for this." I suggested. They obliged, even the little me, and took a seat on the couch. I took the loveseat.

"Well, we all know that you two had a little daughter named Monique that was taken away."

"Your point being?" the mom asked. I think these people are as impatient as me.

"Well, that's me. I'm the little girl whose name was Monique. I go by Nudge now, but I'm your daughter all the same. If you need any proof, I have the same skin, same eyes, and same hair as you guys, and I'm like an exact replica of this girl." I gestured to the girl who answered the door. I never heard anyone be as quiet as these three. I wish I could see what they were thinking. After they let it sink in, the mini me was the first to speak.

"So you're my…sister?"

"You're their daughter? And my sister? I have a sister!" I squealed. So that's who the mini me was! My sister!

"Yup, she's ours!" Mr. Wilson, well, okay, dad beamed. Mom was on the verge of tears, and my little sister was hugging me like crazy.

"I'm Raven, your little sister! I'm younger than you by a year! I can't believe you came here! We moved from Arizona after you were stolen! How did you find us?"

I grinned at her through her hugs. "I've got a friend who knows where you are. She, like, works for US records or something like that. She can get access to people's records and all that, and I really missed you guys and wanted to meet you so she got the records for me and I got your address! She didn't even know your last name, though, so it took forever to find you, and I really owe her. Wouldn't it be so cool if you could just look at a person's files and find out anything you wanted to know about them? Like if you had a crush on someone and you needed to talk with them about something so you look at their files and you see that they like football or whatever and then it would break the ice with your crush and-" I was silenced when I was smothered with a hug from my mom.

"We missed you so much! Oh, look how big you've gotten, baby! Doesn't she look just like us, David? She and Raven could be twins if it weren't for the height and the age difference! But what's this?" She pulled on one of my feathers and I winced as she plucked it out. "What's this, Monique?"

"Uh, it's Nudge. And maybe I should explain." And I did. I told them all about the School and the powers, and the flock, and the wings. I left out Itex, Rina, and saving the world, though, because who would believe me? They gasped when I got to the wings, and mom could have fainted when I showed them to her. When I finished, they were speechless for a minute. Then they accepted it in a variety of ways. Dad sat with a face like stone while he comforted my mom, who was crying into his shoulder at what happened to me. Raven wouldn't stop talking and asking me to show her my power and wings again.

"H-how could we l-let this happen?" Mom sobbed, muffled by dad's wet t-shirt.

"Chill, mom, it wasn't your fault! You didn't know that I would be stolen! In some ways, it's a good thing that happened to me. I got wings, super cool powers, and some great friends!"

"Yeah, like that kid you mentioned, Nazzy, right? You really seemed to like him. I mean, you blushed and everything when you talked about him."

"It's Gazzy. And he's just another good friend." I couldn't help it. My cheeks turned a little redder than usual.

"It's okay, Monique, or should I call you Nudge? I like Nudge better, it sounds so unique, like I've never heard of a Nudge before, but I've heard of a few Moniques. But anyways, it's okay, everyone likes to tease me that I have a crush on this one guy. Tyler. He's just so cute and nice and sweet, but I don't like him more than usual, I mean, he's already taken and all the girls want him anyways. I don't understand, why do girls always like the same guy? It's so weird, it's not like it's a coincidence, all the girls must like the same things in guys or something, but I can't blame them because-" I covered her mouth, just like the flock used to do with me.

"Thanks, Raven, I get it." Who knew I had a little sister who loved to talk as much as me?

The rest of the day was pretty fun. I found out that that baby in the picture I liked so much was me, not Raven! I got a tour of the house, and I got to know my family a lot better. It was like a dream come true! I don't know how many nights in the School I spent dreaming of meeting my parents, except those times I didn't imagine a sister or a small house in California. My mom is a stay-at-home mom and cooks really well, my dad works with computers (so do I!), and my sister is a boy-crazy motormouth (just like me, but I'm not that boy-crazy…I wonder what Gazzy is doing right now?). I was really upset when Rina sent a clone over and told me it was time to go eat dinner. Mom, dad, and Raven were interested in the clone, so I lied again and said that that was Max telling me to go.

**POV Max**

Can't talk. Eating homemade chocolate chip cookies. (Mmglphmm) Oh god, these are good! (burp)

**Sorry, people, but I'm going to stop it short here. I've still got some stuff to do with Fang, I'll probably have it up later today, I just need to adjust some things before I give it to you. Plus if I just gave you Fang's bit, you'd have the longest chapter I ever wrote EVER. I'm not sure some people have the attention spans for that. So here's the first 4 flock members, I'll give you Fang in a sec!**

**Wow, doesn't that purple button look neat? Don't you just want to press it and see what it does? I bet whatever it does is super cool!**


	3. Too Many Silent Guys

**Well, here you go! Just had to make a few adjustments!**

**Disclaimer: Don't have it, don't want it, you know the drill!**

**Chapter 3: Too Many Silent Guys**

**POV Fang (A/N about time, huh? Best for last!)**

What the hell was Rina talking about when she said servants? And what was that about Mr. Denton? I hardly had time to ponder that when Rina sent me here, in an oval shaped field. Don't tell me my dad lived here in this forest? Then I turned around.

Holy crap. Maybe Rina could have mentioned that my dad lived in a friggin' MANSION??!! The thing was huge, a good three stories, not including the attic. The place looked about as long as a football field. How could my dad have all this? Maybe he's a servant or something? That's probably more likely. Rina did say something about a Mr. Denton, though.

Then I saw the sign. It said _Mr. Charlie Denton, owner of Microsoft_. No. Way. It couldn't be. My dad is Mr. Denton, the richest man in the world and new owner of Microsoft after Bill Gates was fired? There must be a mistake, my dad is probably a servant. I kept telling myself that and went up to the guard post next to the iron gate. The guard was watching The Simpsons, but straightened up when he saw me.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, looking for a servant, name of Denton?" He pulled out a binder, which apparently had the names of everyone in that place, scanned the "D" page, and looked at me funny.

"No servants by the name of Denton. We've got six new servants who wouldn't give us last names, though."

"What ages?" Maybe he was transferred here or something.

"Well, we've got a boy who's nine and a half, two twin girls who are eleven, and two boys and a girl who are thirteen. Odd group, wouldn't say anything unless they have to. The oldest boy never speaks at all, he scares everyone. The oldest girl or the second-oldest boy speak for him. We assumed their ages. We're guessing they're orphans or runaways."

Ignoring that last part, I pressed on. "Can I talk to Mr. Denton, then?"

"Another schoolboy, huh? Go in, he always likes an interview." The iron gates sprung open, and I went in, still dwelling on the fact that "he always likes an interview". Doesn't sound like I'll like him that much.

I walked up the gravel to the grand doors. Yeah, you heard me, grand doors. I bet he's got half a million front doors, and twice as many back doors if he has to have a set of grand doors. Two really prissy servants with tuxes opened up the doors and asked me my name to announce it later. Jeez, announce it? If my dad actually believes in that stuff, I'm going to be sick. The servants lead me through a labyrinth of hallways, all the time jabbering on about how I'm very lucky, that Mr. Denton usually doesn't allow students on such short moments, and how amazing the mansion is, until we got to what they called "Master Denton's study." They told me to go right on in, he's expecting me already. They were about to open the doors, and I tried to stop them and open the doors myself, but they did anyways. Then they announced in unison, "Presenting Master Nick Ride". What, it's the first name I could think of!

After those prissy servants closed the doors, Mr. Denton looked up from his armchair with a laptop on a T.V tray in front of him. He looked exactly like me, same hair, same eyes, same build, same build, same bags under the eyes. Sure, he had a few more wrinkles, and I may have had a few more scars (not to mention the wings), but he was still stunningly similar all the same.

"What a bunch of stiffs, huh?" He said, his eyes flickering towards the door so I could see that he was referring to the servants. I have to admit, I was a little taken aback. I thought he might actually like them.

"Why did you hire them, then?" I responded, a small smile twitching on my face.

"No clue." I was rewarded with a small smile of his own. Then it was gone as soon as it appeared. "Well, let's get this over with. What do you want to know?" Huh? Oh right, the interview. I sat on the couch across him, and he didn't seem to mind that I didn't wait for his permission. Another good thing.

"Just a couple things. About your teen years."

"Shoot." I thought I saw a scowl and a flicker of pain in his eyes, but they vanished.

"Did you ever have a girlfriend?"

"Yeah. Alice. Haven't seen her in years. What about her?"

"Have you ever…slept with her?"

His face clouded as much as a non-emotional person could let it cloud. "Isn't that a question people your age shouldn't ask?"

"Times change, Mr. Denton. And besides, this is for…health class." Not the best lie, but I suppose it'll do. "So did you?"

We had a staring contest. I won. "Yes." He admitted. Wow, king of the one-word answers. Just like me.

"Did you know that you left her pregnant?"

His eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "No."

"She was. What did you think happened to her?"

"I don't know. She was acting weird. Not herself. I was going to ask her what was wrong, but her parents pulled her out of school. Never let me see her or call her. They disconnected her personal line. I never heard from her. I missed her." He gazed off into the distance with a look of love and loss in his eyes. Then he snapped back to reality and turned to me. "But why are you asking? What do you know of her?"

"I didn't know her that much. She died a week after the kid was born." Hey, it was true.

"What do you know of the kid?" Suddenly he was back to business, but I sensed he was genuinely curious to hear what happened of his offspring.

"Him I knew well. He's dark. Loves one-word answers. Looks like you. A lot."

"What happened to him? Was he given a good home? He must be a legal adult by now."

"When his mom died, scientists took him. He was born with wings, somehow, we're guessing the scientists made him 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. They did all sorts of painful experiments on him and the five other bird kids until he was ten. Then a scientist helped him and his 'flock', as we call them, escape. Took them to a house, taught them how to fight, and read, then he disappeared. Max took over, and your son took second command. Iggy, the blind guy, became the cook and third in command, Nudge was the motormouth, Gazzy made bombs with Iggy, and Angel was Gazzy's little sister and the youngest. They had to leave their house and travel the world, because a voice in Max's head told her to save the world. Eventually they saved it, so those evil scientists would never bug anyone again. Imagine that, your son saved the world. That was when he was fourteen. He lived in a house and went to school with the flock until he was eighteen. He still lives with them now."

Mr. Denton was wordless. He waited a second to let it sink in. "I don't believe you. My son could never have done that." He concluded.

I shrugged. "You'll just have to trust me. I'm pretty close to the flock. You'd be surprised how much of that is true."

"You mean you lied to me?"

"Only a few of the bits about your son."

"What did you lie about?"

"Not a lot."

He sighed. "Look, kid, just answer me one question. Who is my son? Where is he? Is he outside the gates?"

"You said for me to answer one question, so I'll only answer one. He's in this room talking to you." There, I said it.

He froze any movement he was doing before I said that. "You mean…"

"Yep."

"You're my…son?"

"Look close, you know it's true." I can't believe how calm I sounded. My palms were sweating like crazy.

I wasn't expecting him to leap out of his chair and hug me to death or anything, but that's exactly what he did. I stiffened, like I always do whenever someone besides the flock hugs me, but then I figured I should loosen up a little because when do you hug your dad for the first time in eighteen years? So I loosened up just a bit and half-hugged him back.

My day with my dad was pretty cool. I guess the shock told him to hug me, because he usually doesn't show any emotion. We had a huge lunch, and he showed me his mansion (since neither of us were that good at chatting). That took up pretty much the entire afternoon, because the mansion was so huge. I bet if you set a mouse loose in the place it wouldn't find it's way out for at least two years. But dad knew that I would be picked up soon (I told him we had a close friend that would probably pick me up, but I didn't mention that she was an ex-genie), so before he left me waiting, he took me aside.

"Fang, I was wondering. People have been pressuring me to get an heir, and now that I have one, my security wouldn't mind me to have a bit of publicity. So would you by any chance want to move out of your current house and move in with me? I'd be willing to accept all your friends, too, but you shouldn't have to live pretending you have supervision."

"I'll talk with them and see if they want to. It _has_ gotten kinda boring over there." Hey, I'm a legal adult, I don't need supervision! But it did sound tempting.

"Good boy. Hopefully see you later." He half-grinned at me, and walked away, apparently towards some meeting he had to do.

I stood waiting at the grand doors for maybe five minutes. A number of servants passed me by during that time, none of them bothering so much as a glance at the tall, dark boy leaning on the wall next to the door. Apparently dad didn't tell anyone about his long-lost son yet. Then a boy a little more than half my height strolled into the entry with a bag of food. Strangely enough, he noticed me and stopped right in front of me. He eyed me up and down, and I did the same. He looked to be in his early teens, with jet-black hair and blue eyes. Just his stare creeped me out. Then I remembered the guard's words. _"The oldest boy never speaks at all, he scares everyone. The oldest girl or the second-oldest boy speak for him."_

"Aren't you Charlie Denton's kid?" he was the first to ask.

"Aren't you that kid everyone says never speaks?" I retorted.

"Yeah. But aren't you Charlie Denton's kid?"

"Yeah. But I've got a name."

"Fang, right?"

"How did you know all that?"

"I just know. You look like Charlie Denton's kid, you look like you picked your own name, and you look like you picked Fang."

"Right." My eyes narrowed. Never trust someone who "just knows". "But if you're the kid that never speaks, then how did you start talking?"

"I always knew. I just never did. You know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah. I do. But how did you know I do that?"

"Your posture. The way no one noticed you. Your eyes." At that moment, two kids burst through the doorway the silent kid just entered. There was a boy with dirty blonde hair, and a girl with brown hair and red highlights, roughly the same height. They skidded to a stop in front of me, and stared at me in inexplicable shock. The silent boy just looked at us, emotionless.

The girl spoke first. "Sorry about him." She gestured towards the silent boy. "He's supposed to have brought in the groceries."

"It's okay. We were just having a little chat." I responded coolly. But before we could say more, the grand doors opened and Rina's clone came in. I could tell it was Rina because she taught us how to spot a clone of her. The three kids stared at her and she stared back, and then she turned to me.

"Ready to go, Fang?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

"Yeah, we should go too. Right?" The other boy said as he nudged the quiet boy.

"Yeah. Bye." He turned and walked away before the other two could catch up.

"Sorry." The girl apologized again before she ran off after the other two boys. Rina's clone turned to me.

"Who were they?"

"New servants. Apparently the latest gossip, the oldest creeps everyone out. But shouldn't you know?"

"Nah, that's the original me. She knows everything. Ready to go?"

"I guess." Since Rina's clone knew I only liked physical contact with Max, she just walked parallel with me as we headed to the oval field and into the forest, a good distance away from where everyone could see us disappear. But I felt eyes on my back, and glanced back to see….no one. Jeez, my dad is so cool, but the servants creep me out, and being Mr. Tall, Dark, and Silent, that's saying something.

When we got back, I saw the entire flock waiting for us in the dinning room, looking at me with curiosity. I noted that Max had chocolate all over her face, and everyone looked reasonably content with their visits.

"How did it go, Fang? I had a lot of fun, and I never knew I had a little sister! She's just like me, she looks like me and she talks like me and she-" Max covered her hand with her mouth.

"We'll talk at dinner. Speaking of which, what is dinner?" she addressed Rina.

"Actually, dinner won't be for about an hour now. I thought I may as well get you home early so you don't get too spoiled. I'm going to take Iggy to the store with me to get dinner, and you guys stay here." Their faces fell (except mine and Iggy's), but then Rina sent a thought to everyone except Iggy. "_Actually, while Iggy and I get dinner, I'm sending you guys out to get some presents for Iggy's birthday._" Oh goody, presents. What would a blind kid my age want?

"Don't forget cake! I love cake!" Nudge reminded.

Rina giggled, and Iggy responded "Well, okay, we'll get cake."

Rina and Iggy headed towards the car. "Be back in a bit!" Rina yelled back to us as they closed the door. Almost the instant they left, a portal appeared next to me, with an envelope at the foot of the opening. I picked it up and opened it. There was $200, and a note.

_Guys,_

_Here's some money for the presents. This should be enough. You can have the extra money. Happy hunting!_

_Rina_

_P.S: Iggy wants some stuff from the sports store (guns, powder, etc), but he wouldn't mind adventure books or something._

Well, that helped. We took the portal and landed at the mall, right in front of the sports store. I got him a remote control car, childish, I know, but with all the wires he could probably find a way to blow up the house. And if not he could at least make a mobile bomb. Half an hour later, we met at the portal that was only visible to us.

"What did you get him?" Max asked me while we waited for the others.

"Remote-control car. I figure he could blow something up with all those wires. You?"

"Duct tape. You can do a million things with it." She looked sheepish.

"Don't worry, I didn't know what to get him either."

Eventually the entire flock was ready to go, and we were just in time. I could hear the garage door through the portal. We half-ran through and hid our presents in our rooms just as the door opened and Rina came in with bags. Max passed her to get more groceries, but Rina stopped her a second.

"Get presents?" she muttered.

"Yeah." Max breathed back. I barely heard either of them.

After the groceries were taken in, dinner was prepared, and cake was eaten (the little kids pigged out), we told everyone our stories with our parents. It turns out Gazzy and Angel's parents were really, really poor, and Itex was going to steal them anyways, so they just got paid to give their kids up. Nudge was stolen, and her parents moved to California after she was stolen and had her little sister, Raven, who was like her in every way. Max liked staying with her mom and step-sister and eating chocolate cookies. And Iggy and Rina just spent a day together as Rina's present to Iggy. Then it was my turn to tell about my dad.

"Your turn, Fang!" Angel said. "Was your dad nice?"

"Yeah."

"Did he look like you?" Gazzy asked.

"Yep."

"Did he love giving one word answers, just like you?" Iggy inquired.

"Yes." I smirked.

"Would you like to tell us what was so unique about your dad?" Rina asked with a sly grin on her face. I hated that she knew everything.

"No. You?"

"Your news, your dad, your show." She responded.

I groaned. "Fine. My dad is Charlie Denton." Everyone's eyes widened. Except Rina's, which was annoying.

"Your dad is the richest man on the face of the earth?" Iggy asked.

"Yeah. I was born before he was rich, though." I told them everything in as short a way as I possibly could. I didn't like all that attention. I tried to leave out the part about the weird servant kids, but Rina noticed.

"What about those kids you were talking to when one of my clones came to pick you up?" she asked.

"I don't know. None of the servants looked at me, but this one kid did. He had black hair, blue eyes, and a stare that could turn water into ice."

"He's a mini you! You know, without the eyes." Nudge exclaimed. I glared at her.

"Yeah. Anyways, apparently he's the oldest of the six new servants, and the new servants creep everyone out. Won't say anything unless they absolutely have to. This specific kid was known for not speaking at all. So when he said 'you're Charlie Denton's kid, right?' I was surprised." Iggy tried to keep in his laughter.

"Fang? Surprised? Say it isn't so!"

"Yeah, ha ha. So the kid starts talking, and he knows everything about me, my name, why I'm here, how I like to stalk in the shadows and all that. And then these two other kids, probably the other two thirteen-year-olds, come skidding up in front of him, turn around, and look at me in shock for some reason. Then the girl says she's sorry about the weird kid, and Rina's clone comes through the doors, and they stare at her. Then the creepy kid leaves, and so do the two kids that chased him. And when Rina's clone and I were walking through the forest, I felt eyes, and I turned back and didn't see anyone. You'd have to have raptor vision and then some to see us from that mansion."

"So basically the servants creep you out?" Max concluded.

"Yeah, my dad's cool, but he has a weird taste in servants. Especially those three. Wonder what the other three are like. Hey, I forgot one detail."

"Which one?"

"Before my dad left me alone in the hall, he said that he wants me to live with him. He'd be happy to take you guys too, if it makes me happy."

"Well, would we want to?" Max asked the flock.

"Tell me about the servants again?" Gazzy asked. "If I get one I'll go. Oh Jeeves, my tea is cold, please go fire the cook and get me another!" he imitated a snooty rich person's voice.

"Gazzy! I thought you were raised better!" Max scolded.

"What? I'm only kidding! And I said please! But wouldn't it be so cool if I could have a servant bring me breakfast in bed every morning?" his face suddenly became blissful, and he spaced out.

"I'll go. I wouldn't mind living in a mansion, maybe being homeschooled, and maybe we could have a pet again!" Angel claimed. After Total died at the School (what, we didn't tell you that? Must have slipped our minds, we missed Rina so much), Angel learned to open her heart again (after a LOT of counseling from Rina, who said that Total was actually happier in doggie heaven and wouldn't want to come back to life again).

"Ooh, a pet? I'm in! Can I get a horse? Maybe I'll name her Clip-Clop! Or Apple! I'll see which one she likes better. And we can ride over the entire meadow for hours and I can groom her myself, and I'll feed her-" Iggy, who was nearest, clamped a hand down over her mouth.

"Okay, Nudge, we've got your vote. I'm going for yes. Maybe I can actually resign from my job, get away from those evil teachers over there, have more free time." I could have sworn he glanced in Rina's direction.

"I'm not so sure about this. Rina, would it be a good thing to move over there?" Max asked.

"I say let's. And not just because the future will be better over there. If we go over there, we'll have security, we can get away from the school system and be homeschooled, we wouldn't have to work, we wouldn't have to lie, and if Fang's dad understands, we'll be able to show our wings and powers. And there's one key concept I particularly like."

"What's that?" Max asked.

"I could give you guys money, but how would we explain it? People aren't going to believe that one of us won the lottery, and seven people, three of whom are barely adults, would live unsupervised in a mansion with a zillion servants and money galore. No one is that gullible. We're better off going to Fang's dad, people will believe that, and we won't have to hide our wings and powers under Mr. Denton's protection! So I vote yes."

"In that case, I vote yes too. This sounds too good to be true!"

"Settled then. We're gonna live with my dad." This should get good, I thought. Then we left to the living room to give Iggy his presents.

**Well, hope you liked it! I can update as soon as tomorrow, but my fingers are exhausted, and I'm hungry. So I hope you enjoyed it, and please review!**


	4. Fang's Dad

**I gotta admit, I didn't think I would be on the computer again today, but then mom stole the T.V, which I was watching, by the way, I was just also on rat patrol (my brother left the garage door one too many times and a mouse snuck in), so anyways, mom stole the T.V and turned it to a channel I didn't like, so here I am, listening to music, typing, and trying to drown out the Mythbusters Shark Special. I suppose you're happy.**

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! You're all so nice, and you make me do my happy dance! Oh, and before I forget, DarkBlade98, Katie-3llen, and max ride girl get credit and a big hug from me because you guys helped me with ideas for the sequel! And I can't say what they said I should do, because that would kinda spoil the story.**

**Okay, now things might speed up a bit. I'm so bad at the beginning of the story, I get a lot more confidence towards the climax. Well, here's your chapter!**

**Disclaimer: you know I don't own it, so what's the problem? As long as I give credit to James Patterson I'm good! Nyah nyah, can't get me! (sticks tongue out at James Patterson's lawyers)**

**Chapter 4: Fang's Dad (such an original title! I told you I'm bad at these)**

**POV Iggy**

Rina took care of everything for us. Posing as our adopted mom, she contacted Fang's dad and agreed to us living there, pulled us out of school, took us out of our jobs, packed our most important possessions, sold our house and most everything in it, and got us here, in front of Fang's dad's mansion. Sometimes I wonder if she gets tired of doing everything. Max doesn't mind, she deserves a break after all those years. I think she likes hanging out with Fang more with all the extra time. And Fang doesn't mind either, so they're both good.

So here we were, in front of this humongous mansion. Wow, it really was huge. The lawn looked almost manicured, with a few sprinklers going off, and there was probably pastures edged by trees behind the mansion. The house itself was three stories, not including the attic, and it was painted a white color. And this was where we were going to live. I could deal with that.

Fang moved first, clearly confident after Max squeezed his hand, and started striding towards the guard post, with the flock at his heels. I'm not sure if it's normal for guards to watch Family Guy, but I'm guessing it isn't, considering the way he jumped up and turned it off when Fang cleared his throat.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, Fang Denton and flock, here to see my dad." Why was Fang using his last name? Usually you'd have to drag it out of him. And why did he call him his dad? Maybe it was just to speed things along.

"Yes sir, Mr. Denton." he did a quick head count. "But Mr. Denton said there would be six of you, not seven. We'll have to keep out the extra girl." I growled and put my hand in Rina's. They were going to let her in if I had to make them. But Fang took care of it already.

"She's with us. Let her in or I tell your boss all about you watching T.V during your shift." The guard trembled and reached for the button that opened the gates.

"Y-yes sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"That's it." And then we walked in. Rina caught up behind Fang.

"Hey Fang?"

He grunted to show he was listening.

"Thanks." I thought I saw a smile quirk across his face in response.

"Welcome."

We reached the grand doors (Grand doors? Weird.), and they were opened by those snooty servants Fang was telling us about. What, were we physically disabled? Just because I used to be blind doesn't mean I need my doors opened for me! We could probably rip these doors out of the walls while these wimps could hardly budge them! Strangely enough, they referred to Fang as "Young master Denton" and we were "company". Sure, they asked our names, but I think they were so weird they just decided to call us "company". Everyone winced at the names, and we were led down a huge maze of halls, thankfully with no lecture on the history of the house or how Fang's dad was often too busy to see us and we were lucky. Eventually we got to another set of humongous doors which were opened once again by the servants (see rant above) to reveal a pretty big office with a fireplace, a few desks, some filing cabinets, and Fang's dad sitting in an armchair waiting for us.

"Presenting Master Fang Denton, and his friends, Ms. Maximum Ride, Mr. Iggy Griffiths, Miss Sabrina Bailey-"

"Rina" she corrected/growled. I should have warned her it was a mistake to tell them her full name.

"Fine, Miss Rina Bailey, Miss Nudge Wilson, Mr. Gazzy Stewart, and Miss Angel Stewart." You should have seen the looks on their faces as they said our names! They looked like they would rather be poisoned than say such improper names. They left, and Fang's dad looked up. Wow, Fang wasn't lying when he said they looked alike. They had the same everything, even the same scars (except for Fang's dad they weren't scars, they were wrinkles). I bet they were the same height too.

"Nice to see you again, Fang. And nice to see your friends too. But why are there seven of you?"

Rina raised her hand next to me. "That's me. Fang neglected to mention me. I'm Rina, and I was their genie for a period of time. I helped them save the world. Iggy here-" she nudged me with a very sharp elbow "-wished me free, but I decided to stick around anyways and help them out. I made them the house we've been living in for the last four years, I was the one who got you and your son together, and I was the one who contacted you and told you we'd come live here. I hope you don't mind my sudden appearance."

Fang's dad was silent, and he seemed even better at being silent than Fang, which I never thought was possible. Then he spoke. "You're a genie?"

"Ex-genie, actually."

"Are you…like them?"

"You mean wings and powers and stuff? Yeah, if that's what you mean. I have every superpower ever imagined."

"Really?" I suspected that he was more than just politely interested.

"And for my first demonstration, I will answer your thoughts. Yes, you may have a demonstration of my powers. What would you like to see first?" Rina asked. Fang's dad raised an eyebrow.

"Are you strong?"

In answer to his question, Rina levitated a soda can that was on a T.V tray next to him, poured the soda into a glass that appeared instantly, and floated the can over to her outstretched hand. Once in her grasp, she gave it a tiny squeeze, and it was crushed into an aluminum ball with a "CRACK!" sound. She let go and made it disappear before it hit the ground.

"Do you believe me now?"

"Yeah." If I never lived with Fang all those years, I would never have noticed the slight surprise in his eyes or the way he gripped the arm of the chair just a little tighter. "But which one of you goes with which name?"

Max raised her hand. "I'm Max. Fang may have said I saved the world, but I didn't. We saved the world, not just me. Just wanted to make that clear."

He gave a slight nod. And I have no clue why, but Rina and Angel (note that they're the mind readers) giggled. Fang's dad glared at them, and they shut up.

"Sorry, sir, it's not you, just the thought." Angel apologized. "I'm Angel."

"I should have guessed. And the other blonde, the shorter one, is he your brother?"

"Yeah, I'm Gazzy." Wow, Fang actually told him that detail? I thought he'd leave half the details out just to keep his reputation of short answers.

"Hi! I'm Nudge! I really like my name, I just picked it one day, but I don't know the story. Max, would you tell me the story again? Just not now, maybe later, 'cause right now we're meeting Fang's dad! Wow, you look a lot alike. And it's so nice that you're taking us in! I think it's really nice because we eat so much and if it weren't for Rina and Max's credit card we'd starve, and I don't like starving, it makes my stomach feel so weird and I can never fight when I'm hungry, but I don't need to fight any more since we saved the world. Well, mainly Max saved the world, with a lot of help from Rina, but we helped a bit because I got Max into the computer system and Gazzy and Angel got the backup program and Iggy and Fang guarded us and Rina watched out and gave instructions and she looked so weird when she was sitting there, she could have been dead if I didn't see her breathing. Do genies need to breathe? I just thought that they'd have developed beyond the need to breathe, because they seem so superior or whatever the word is to humans and-" since I was closest to her, I clamped a hand over her mouth.

"We get it, Nudge. I'm Iggy." I told Fang's dad, as if he hadn't already guessed. He was still stiff from Nudge's continuous rambling. Then he loosened to his semi-stiff state.

"Well, now that I know who you are, I guess I should introduce you to your servants and have them take you to your rooms." Gazzy punched a fist in the air and mouthed "knew it!" at the mentioning of servants.

"Servants?" Max asked.

"Just until you can navigate this place on your own. You can keep them if you like, sometimes they come in handy. But I only expected six of you. Sorry, Rina, but can you bunk with someone until we can get you a room? Don't think you need a servant."

"Sure, I can do that." Unseen by everyone else, she winked at me. Excellent, Rina's sleeping in my room! I thought she'd go with Max because she's a girl. But then again Max might get mad that she would have to go to Fang's room to hang out. Back to now, Fang's dad clapped his hands, and the door opened to have six servants walk in. But wait, the smallest girl, what was that black dog in her arms? Wait, is that-

"TOTAL!" Angel shrieked. Everyone in the room jumped at least an inch, and Angel ran over and picked him up from the girl's arms, ignoring the confused look on the servants' faces.

"Angel! I thought you died in the explosion!" Total licked her face as she hugged him.

"What explosion?" Angel asked, her eyes watering up after four years of not seeing her talking dog.

"When the School was blown up! The night before I got here they said you died. I could have sworn I was freed while I was sleeping, hours before it exploded. And then I was here, at the door of the mansion! They took me in for four years. I almost forgot how to talk! But what are you doing here?"

"Rina got to the School, freed all the experiments, and we saved the world and blew up the School, then we got a house and went to school for the past four years. Then we found out that Fang's dad live here, so we're living here now! But I missed you so much! They said you were dead too!" She hugged Total so hard he looked like a squeeze toy. She got better at holding him as she grew, apparently. Everyone was pretty surprised at Total's sudden reappearance, and I knew Fang and his dad were trying to ignore the apparent affection.

"Well, now that you have your dog back, these are your servants. They're new here, but they know the place well. And they also refuse to give us any names, so-"

"Demetria." One of them murmured. She was apparently the oldest girl, possibly the leader, with brown hair and red highlights, not unlike Rina's, and blue eyes. "Call me Demi, though." She added with a small smile at us.

"Dylan." Said a boy with very, very dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. "I'm Demi's twin brother."

"I'm Taylor. I don't know why my name is like that, I'm not a tailor or anything. I don't even care about clothes that much, I can't sew them or make them, not that I want to, I'm a boy! I think they put me in laundry just because my name sounded to them like I'd be good at it, which I'm not. They're all 'put the clothes in the machine' and 'don't you know how to do laundry?' and-" Demi put a hand over his mouth. He looked sheepish, with his blue eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin.

"Sorry. He's our motormouth." She gave us a sheepish grin, trying to distract us from the fact that Taylor just quoted the laundry person in a completely different voice. He sounded like a Nudge with Gazzy's power thrown in. But maybe we were just imagining it.

"I'm Tara,"

"I'm Skye,"

"And we're twins!" The other two girls said at the same time. The one who said her name was Tara had brown hair, brown eyes, light skin, and an air that suggested she would do anything to protect those she cared about. Her twin, Skye, had the same skin, hair and eyes, but strangely enough, her stance suggested that she was like Angel, sweet, innocent, and powerful and strong when she had to be. But the way these two seemed to know each other's thoughts and feelings so well, you could see they were sisters. They cooperated so well.

"This is our older brother." They said, again at the same time, gesturing towards the last boy. They must have known he didn't want to speak for himself, but they waited for him anyways.

"Kyle." He muttered. This boy was unlike the other two, not funny or talkative. He didn't even look like he knew how to smile. He just stood silently, observing everything and saying nothing, no emotion showing on his face. He had short, jet-black hair that stood up at the ends, olive skin, and blue eyes. Except for the eyes, he could have been a mini Fang. I looked at the real Fang, and he was examining Kyle in a way that suggested they had met before. Sure enough, Rina sent a thought into our heads that proved me right.

"_Those three older kids, Kyle, Dylan, and Demi, those were the kids Fang and my clone were talking to. Kyle's the one that rarely speaks, so I guess we're lucky he said anything._" Well, he did look like the kind of person to creep everyone out by doing nothing. I wouldn't be able to imagine him capable of speech if I didn't hear him myself.

"Well, now that you've met, Demi, you'll be Max's servant," Fang's dad said. Max and Demi eyed each other. Leaders should serve leaders, I guess. "Kyle, let's put you with Fang," oh, how perfect, Fang and Mini Fang. I'll call him Mini Fnick. "Iggy, you get Dylan," me and Dylan? Well, I guess we could get along. He looked nice enough, probably the only normal boy of them. "Tara, go with Nudge," I'm not sure Tara would be able to stand Nudge. This ought to be interesting. "Taylor, go with Gazzy," I think Taylor should have gone with Nudge, they could talk each other's heads off. But they did look like they could cooperate. "And Angel, you'll get Skye." The youngest girls looked like they could get along the most. "And now that we're all settled, would you guys be willing to take them to their rooms?" Fang's dad addressed the servants. They responded with nods and "yeahs" and left the room, apparently intending for us to follow. We hurried after them, after thanking or nodding to Fang's dad.

When the door was closed and we were all out, the kids turned to us. "Okay, let's get a few things straight." Demi started, suddenly all business. "We're not servants. We're just like you."

"You mean you're either two percent birds with superpowers or ex-genies?" Rina asked. Demi grinned just a bit.

"Ha ha, very funny. But we're only here because we have to be. We're working because we need the money, and this is the only job that will take all six of us. We only serve you for the overtime pay. Got it?" We nodded, surprised that she would think we thought otherwise. I raised my hand.

"Just one question?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I call Kyle Mini Fnick? They look so alike and all, so..." Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Dylan, Tara, Skye, and Taylor all cracked up, and Rina smirked.

"No, you can't." Fang answered for Demi. "We're not that similar. Don't even think about it."

"Maybe we should see what Kyle thinks." Demi said, and looked at Kyle. He shrugged.

"Sure. If it's easier." He muttered in a tone barely recognizable. That makes five words I heard him say. A record, after knowing him for only ten minutes. That's a word every two minutes. See, I learn in school! But I get to call him Mini Fnick!

"Thanks, Mini Fnick." I grinned. Fang groaned and put his head in his hand, which isn't a very Fang-ish act, so he must be really ticked off. The little kids and Rina absolutely went crazy with laughter, and even Max smiled a bit. I didn't think it was that funny, just true.

"Okay, better go show you your rooms, dinner will be ready soon." Demi said. The kids stopped almost instantly and turned to Rina.

"Who are you going to share with?" Taylor asked. She blushed.

"Iggy." The kids snickered. "What? I happen to like him!" I smiled and put my hand in hers. That's my girl. Tara, Skye, and Taylor snickered a little more, the flock, Dylan, and Demi were ignorant, if not a little pleased, and Fang and Mini Fnick were completely oblivious. Dylan cleared his throat.

"Okay, so you two will be coming with me. Any objections?" we shook our heads, and he gestured for us to follow him. I waved, and Rina said "See you at dinner!", and we followed him through another maze of halls. I thought I saw that door with the lions on it before, but otherwise it looked completely new to me. Rina probably knew this place by heart.

"_I do. But don't worry. I'll help you._" She read my mind and gave my hand a squeeze. Dylan suddenly picked up the pace, and we almost had to jog to keep up with him. Man, that kid was _fast_.

Eventually we got to an entirely different wing, which apparently had our bedrooms in it. Dylan stopped at the entrance and turned to face us.

"Okay, on the left, Max, Fang, and Iggy, in that order. On the right, Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge. Rina will probably be at the end once they make it. In the meantime, you'll share. I suggest you don't share a bed just yet." He smirked and we rolled our eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny." Rina said. "So are the rooms decorated?"

"Not yet. Mr. Denton decided to wait for you guys to decorate your own, if you want to." Rina and I looked at each other.

"Maybe later." I said. Maybe when Rina was moved out.

"I heard that." Rina put on a fake offended look. "I can't believe you want me out. How could you?" she pretended to slap me. I pretended to be hurt. But then Rina saw the look on my face and just cracked up, then me, then even Dylan grinned.

"Okay, guys, here's your room." He walked to the end of the hall and opened the last door on the left. It was huge. Seriously, you could fit the kitchen and the dining room in here, and that's not including the bathroom and walk-in closet. Speaking of which, the bathroom had no door, and it was in the middle of the right wall. The walk-in closet was on the left. Directly in front of us was a queen-sized bed with white sheets, blankets and pillows, and next to it was a nightstand with a lamp on it. Other than that, the room was completely blank, save for a balcony next to the bed. But it was perfect all the same. "Is it good?" Dylan asked us.

"Perfect." Rina said. I was speechless. "Can my room be just like this?"

"Yeah. Well, I'll leave you guys to unpack. There's a phone in the closet, call it and I'll come. Gotta go work in the kitchen now." And he left without another word. Rina and I walked in, still admiring the room.

"Hey Rina?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna furnish it a bit? It looks kinda blank."

"Sure! What first?"

"How about an actual color for the walls? Maybe red?"

"Sure." Then the walls turned a light red, like a chameleon. Rina grinned. "Don't want it to get too red, your eyes will burst."

"Agreed. And let's see, what else? How about furniture?"

"Fine. Anything in particular?"

"A couch. And how about a T.V?" Instantly, a couch appeared next to the doorway, and a T.V was on the center cushion.

"Where should the T.V go?" it went like that for about half an hour, where we decorated my room together. I felt guilty doing nothing, but Rina read my mind and assured me that there was nothing wrong with this, that this was extremely easy for her, and she'd do anything for me. This was followed by quite a few kisses, until the younger kids burst through the door demanding help with decoration.

**Okay, odd time to stop a chapter, but I'm going to do it anyways. Otherwise you'd have one long chapter. I'm going to split this into two, so just wait a sec and the rest of this will be there. But you know I like it when you guys review!**


	5. Deal

**Okay, I'm back! Here's chapter 5 for you. It's nothing much, but it explains some stuff and keeps the plot going. Here you go!**

**Chapter 5: Deal**

**POV Iggy**

After I watched T.V with Rina, and Rina's clones helped decorate, we went to dinner. Fang's dad had a meeting, so it was just us and our servants. That was the first time I noticed that Mini Fnick stared at Demi a lot. That was probably the only time he looked happy. I think I saw him smile every once in a while. What was going on in his head? Fang had to call his name about three times before he broke out of his trance and refilled the water.

Then, when dinner was over, Rina insisted they go to bed, kinda like a mom. So we had a free night. We took the time to watch a movie as a flock in the theater (It's just a big-screen T.V with recliners and a DVD player). We decided on Harry Potter, since it was good for the kids but grown-up enough for us. I've heard a few people at our old school who talked about Harry Potter all the time, and they were seniors, so it must be pretty good. It actually was pretty good. My favorite part was the game with the broomsticks because I could really relate to that. Apparently Nudge agreed.

"I know what you mean, Iggy, I mean, it's kinda like us if we had those balls that flew around and we had to hit them with bats, and then we'd need that ball with the wings. Who would catch that, though? Maybe Angel because she's the smallest and all. And Gazzy and Iggy could be those beater people and me and Max and Fang could be those people who put the ball through the hoops and Rina could be the person who blocks the hoops! Yeah, that could be so much fun, and who would the other team be? I hope we beat them, especially if they're-" Gazzy clamped a hand over her mouth for his chance to speak.

"I like the part where that Harry kid finds out he's a wizard. The giant guy is all 'you're a wizard, Harry' and he's all 'I'm a what?'" he spoke with the same voices as the characters.

"Yeah, Gazzy got news for ya." Rina said.

"What?"

"You're a bird kid, Gazzy." She mocked in the same voice as the giant guy. It was pretty funny, especially since I never heard her use Gazzy's power before.

"I'm a what?" Gazzy played along, and Angel and Nudge snickered, followed by yawns.

"Okay, guys, we've had a big day, and it's time to go to bed." Max said. I think the movie made them too tired to complain, so they just nodded, and Max called for one of the servants. Mini Fnick came, and after everyone greeted him as Mini Fnick, Mini Fang, or Kyle (that was Rina- she still remembered how much it sucked to be a servant herself), he escorted us down the halls to our rooms. I think I was starting to get the hang of the place already. Dang, I was learning to liking Dylan.

We said goodnight to each other and walked into our newly decorated rooms, Rina at my side the entire time. Once we closed the door, she said "I call the left side!" and went into the walk-in closet to change.

"What do you mean you call the left side?" I asked while I changed on the other side.

"Well, did you want me to take the right side?" her voice was muffled through the door.

"No, I'm fine, but I thought you'd sleep on the couch or something!"

"No way, that bed is extra comfy, and I don't want to kick you out of it, so I guess we'll just have to share." She came out of the door, and all thoughts of ways to not share disappeared as I examined her pajamas. She wore a white tank-top that was so tight it covered every bit of her figure, and the blue sweats cut off as capris, which exposed the lower part of her legs. Holy crap, was she pretty. She giggled, and I looked down to see that I was in the middle of changing pants! Well, at least she wasn't laughing at the thoughts. And my shirt was pretty long. She closed the door and I finished, still dazed at what I just saw.

When she came out and I tried not to drool on the brand-new carpet, I said "Well, maybe we could share. Just for tonight. Since it's a special occasion." I only meant to say the first sentence, but I added those last parts quickly so she didn't think I was a sexist pig or something.

"Fine." She grinned, and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth with a toothbrush that came out of nowhere. I don't see why she had to, her teeth were fine anyways, and she could just fix them when she got cavities. "So I can feel a little human. I don't need to use my powers all the time." She answered my thoughts.

"Yeah, just look at what your powers got us into." I said sarcastically. "Huge mansion, servants for the kids, a theater, huge bedrooms, no school or jobs, us sharing a bed, just look at what mess you caused, Rina! Everyone's miserable, and all because you used your powers!"

"Hey, that was all luck that Fang's dad happens to be the richest man in the world!" she said with a mouth full of toothpaste. "It's not like I made it that way. It's not like I even knew until I looked, which was five seconds after I suggested he go visit him!"

"Yeah, but it was still pretty cool. Hey, this just popped into my mind, but how come you and Angel were snickering when Fang's dad met Max?"

"Oh, that!" she grinned once she rinsed and spit all the extra toothpaste into the sink. "Well, we were both reading his mind to see what he thought of us, and when he saw how Fang kept looking at her with admiration and listening to him mentioning her like she was the greatest thing since rock music when they first met, he saw her and thought 'so this is the famous Maximum Ride? Well she is pretty. I suppose she'd be a great girl for Fang. I wonder when they're getting married.' It was pretty funny at the time."

I smirked. "Well, that explains it. But what did he think of the rest of us?"

"He thought Angel was a little creepy, but she looked sweet enough not to scare him too much. Gazzy was interesting, he wondered what the name was about, and how the heck could this kid mimic voices. I'm just glad he didn't come for dinner, otherwise he'd see the meaning of Gazzy's name. Nudge was way too talkative for his style, but I think he was at least softened when she said that it was so nice that he was taking us in. He really likes Fang and Max. And you, well, he thinks you look completely ordinary. You're not as weird as any of the others, and he thinks Fang was lying when he said you were blind and you had extraordinary senses. I guess it's a compliment. He's not used to people like us."

"And what about you?"

"He thinks I'm the strangest girl he's ever met, especially because of the powers, but he also thinks I'm pretty too, and I better room with a girl or I'll loose my virginity before I'm married, like he did."

"Hehehe, nice. I can't believe he thought that about you."

"What, the powers?"

"No, the virginity."

"Ignoring that." She blushed and left the bathroom. I followed her, and sat with her on the bed. Normally, I would have stroked her hair or something, but something was on my mind. No, it wasn't what Fang's dad thought about Rina. It was what he thought about Max and Fang.

"What's up, Iggy?"

"Just thinking."

"About what?"

"About what Fang's dad thought about Max and Fang. You know, like when they're going to get married."

"Yeah, I have been wondering about that. I know they like each other, they just don't want us to see it. I see it though, in their thoughts. They love each other so much it hurts."

"What do they do when they're together in a room?"

"Sometimes they listen to music together, but most of the time they talk. You know, about the past and what's going on. Sometimes they talk about us."

"Us?" I asked.

"Yeah, us. Like as a couple. It's like we influence them or something. Often it leads to kissing and all that."

"Wow, I guess they do like each other. Anything we can do about it?"

"You know, the last time you asked that we had them admitting their undying love and kissing on a cliff."

"Meaning?"

"We hold a lot of power. We could get them to do a lot. They love each other, I know it. They just need motivation. Encouragement. And that's where we come in."

"What should we do this time?" Please say set an example, please say set an example! Oh, wait, that's the boy hormones kicking in. Better talk to the bird kid genes. Bird kid genes, what do you say? Please say set an example, please say set an example!

"No, we shouldn't set an example just yet. I'm not legally an adult yet." Dang, she read my mind again.

My hormones were screaming at me to say "Aww, c'mon! You can get older!" but instead I listened to my sane side and said "So what do we do, then?"

"I was thinking something along the lines of you telling Fang to propose to Max. Just you saying it and bringing the option out into the open will break the ice. Knowing Fang, he'll really consider it."

"Fine, I guess I can try. What do I do?"

"Just keep giving him reasons until he gives in."

"Well there we go! Problem solved. Wait, when do I do this?"

"Whenever you want to. Preferably soon, they should do something before things get too boring."

"Okay. Night."

"Night." Then we settled into bed. With Rina next to me under the sheets, I was ready to sleep. But apparently Rina wasn't, because when nothing's bugging me and I can't sleep, Rina has something bugging her. It's all part of my Ri-dar. Fang has a Max-dar, and I'll bet Gazzy has a Nudge-dar. You get it when you love someone.

"Rina?" I asked groggily.

"Yeah?" She responded almost instantly. Yup, she's wide awake.

"What's up?"

"The ceiling, the sky, some birds, some bird kids, a few airplanes, the sun, some clouds, the lightbulb, the attic, the genie headquarters, my parent's house, taxes, drunk people, and the stars. Why?"

"No, I mean what's wrong? Why can't you sleep?"

"Well, I forgot to tell you something about this place."

"What, is this a haunted mansion? Are there ghosts out there who want genie blood and will kill anyone to get it?"

"Gee, thanks, now I'm never going to sleep."

"Glad to be of service. But seriously, what didn't you tell me?"

"It's about the servants."

"What about them?"

"Well, they really scare me. When Angel and I tried to read their minds, we couldn't get anything. We can't read their minds."

I froze. "Really? All the servants you can't read?"

"No, just ours. Demi, Dylan, Kyle, Tara, Skye, and Taylor. We couldn't get anything from them at all."

"Really? Are you sure this isn't just some passing thing?"

"I'm sure. I don't know what they think, or if they think. It's not my end, it's theirs. There's something wrong, I know it." In the moonlight, she looked seriously freaked, looking at me with worry and terror. Now I had to be the strong one.

"Rina." I sat up, leaned my back against the headboard, and put her head on my chest. She didn't mind. "You're a genie with unimaginable powers. You've fought an unknown amount of people, including one psycho eraser clone that captured you and left you without powers. You're an amazing person with extraordinary powers, and you're worried of people whose minds you can't read. It's not the end of the world. You'd know when that happened. So you don't know what they're thinking. Neither do most of us. We get along just fine without knowing what everyone around us thinks. You want to be human, I can understand that. So here's your chance. Just get to know them the way we humans and mutants do. And if you're really that freaked out, just use some of your other powers to know them." We sat silently for a moment as Rina's breath steadied and I stroked her perfect hair, waiting for her response.

"Thanks Iggy. I guess I feel a little better. I'm just worried if they're bad. We couldn't read the flyboy's minds, and they're evil. And some scientists I can't hear at times, like Jeb. And I can't use my powers to find out about their past or get their memories or anything. What if they're planning to poison our next dinner as revenge for the School explosion?"

"So talk to them. See what they spill. And you could probably tell if they're lying. That'll at least give you a hint as to who they are. Maybe talk with Demi, she's the leader."

Rina sighed and pushed herself closer to my chest. "I'll make a deal with you."

"Fine."

She giggled. "Don't you want to know what the deal is?"

"Knowing you it can't be bad. But tell me anyways."

"I'll talk with Demi about the whole mind blocking bit…"

"Yeah?"

"If you talk with Fang about the proposal at the same time."

"Yeah, I guess that sounds fair. Tomorrow after dinner good for you?"

"Yup."

"Great. Now try to get some sleep, you look exhausted."

"No I-" she was cut off by a gaping yawn.

"That's what I'm talking about. Now get some sleep. It'll be fine."

"Okay." And with that she just fell asleep on my chest, right there, right then. Not exactly what I meant, but it'll work. I fell asleep shortly after, my hand still in her hair.

**Aww, so cute! In my opinion. Hope you guys liked it too! Please review! But I might not respond to them for a while, I'm going school shopping and then I'm gonna watch Edward Scissorhands! Bye! And please review!**


	6. Conversation Servants and Secrets

**Hi people! I'm getting better at not rambling so much in my author's notes, haven't you noticed? I really can't say a lot, except for HOW the heck can school be starting so soon? No fair! Then I can't update as much, which I enjoy so much! They better not have too much homework. Okay, that's about it on the crazy random stuff. So thank you so much to my readers and reviewers, and let's start another chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't want it, happy with what I've got! Except I wouldn't mind some of Rina's powers, lower gas prices and taxes, our basement not to be infected with Hanta virus, a boyfriend (someone like Fang or Edward Cullen, except they're taken, but I said someone LIKE them), and no school so I can update more! But otherwise I'm happy with what I've got. Here's chapter 6, people! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 6: Conversation**

**POV Fang**

I can't believe my personal servant is an exact replica of me. What are the odds of getting someone who looks, walks, talks, and acts exactly like me? Why couldn't I have gotten Dylan, so then he can tell me what Max and his sister were doing last night? Or Taylor, I could have stood him jabbering on about whatever. But then again, if Kyle were Iggy or Gazzy's servant, he'd probably still be nicknamed Mini Fang, or Mini Fnick, as Iggy calls him, so I guess it's better I have him.

I woke up in my newly-decorated bedroom, being shaken awake by Kyle. "Wake up." He muttered, sounding frustrated. He must have been doing this to me for a while. "Can't you hear me? Get up!"

"No. Go away." I waved him off and rolled over. He just jumped up onto the bed, about to shake me harder, but when the mattress sank in to admit him, he looked as close to bewildered as an expressionless guy could get.

"No fair, they gave you a featherbed and they gave us these brick things, and I have to share."

"Share?" I sat up. I guess I got the "defend the weak" thing from Max. I couldn't help but pity the kid a little bit.

"Yeah, share. With Dylan and Taylor. And the bed is a little smaller than this, and Taylor is one restless sleeper. I've woken up on the floor on more than one occasion."

"Wow, for a billionaire you'd think he'd spend more money on servants. But when did you start talking so much?"

"I told you when we first met, I always knew how, I just never did."

"Yeah, but why more with me?"

He shrugged. "No clue. Dark guys talk to dark guys, I guess. Get dressed, your dad says we gotta give you the grand tour today."

"But I got one already."

"I know, but he forgot, and it makes things easier. Another tour might help you get used to the place. And otherwise you have nothing to do for the day." I stumbled out of bed and into my closet. Just the closet alone was huge. My clothes only took up about a fourth of the closet, which gave me plenty of room to dress, but still intimidated me to get more clothes. Just as I was about to walk out of the closet, Kyle stopped me.

"What?"

"Don't wear that."

"Huh? I always wear black."

"I'm not talking about the black." He stepped into my closet and came out with some cargos, still black, but loose and baggy. I eyed it.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Why should I?"

"First of all, it'll be hot today, and we'll be outside a lot. Second of all, Max will love it." I gave him a weird look. How would he know what Max likes?

"Just trust me, okay?"

"Fine." I took the pants and changed. I got a slight nod from Kyle, and he led the way to breakfast. I met the flock and the servants at the table, who nodded or waved to me through mouthfuls of food. Max eyed me a little more than usual, and I made a mental note to thank Kyle and ask how he knew she would like it. The servants looked kinda starved, but the flock would wonder who the heck I was if I offered something to one of them. So I didn't say anything. For all I knew they could be pigging out on leftovers in the kitchen.

"So what do we do today?" Max asked the room in general.

"Mr. Denton wants us to give you a tour of the mansion. That should take most of the day, and you can do whatever you want for the rest of today. Sound good?" Demi stated. We responded with various nods and "yes's", and they continued clearing off the table.

After the servants were done with their chores, they split us up and started the tour in different places. Kyle took me and started in the grand hall.

"Grand hall." He held his hands out to emphasize his words. "East wing's got offices, living rooms, company entertainment, all that stuff." He pointed left. "West wing's got bedrooms, personal entertainment, etc." He pointed right. "Let's start with East." I followed him through some more halls as he pointed out rooms. The first wing was all dad's, like business stuff and meeting rooms. We met Max and Demi when we were in the third dinning room (yeah, there's three dinning rooms, one for fancy, one for dinner and lunch, and one for breakfast. I wonder if each one has its own kitchen).

"Hi Fang!" Max greeted me. "What are you doing?"

"Same as you, getting the tour. Seen the library yet?"

"No, but I want to. I've heard that they have a marble fireplace in there where you can read."

"They do, it's huge."

"Hey, mind if we join you?" Demi asked Kyle. "It would be easier and cover more ground."

Kyle shrugged his approval, and we continued with the tour. I won't describe it to you, but it was _long_. The only time I got to sit down was when it was lunch. At least I could find my way to the lunchroom on my own. I heard all about what the others saw, mainly how Nudge and Angel saw the pretty ponies.

"Ooh, Max, can we go get one of our own please?" Angel begged.

"I want to name mine Cinnamon!" Nudge claimed.

"What if she's not brown?"

"Then I'll name her Sugar!"

"What if she's a bad pony?"

"Then I'll name her Ivy!"

"What if she's a boy?"

"I haven't gotten that far yet."

The lunchtime conversation went like that for the remainder of lunch, where Nudge and Angel discussed pony names, and Max or Rina would occasionally come in with a comment. Us boys didn't say anything, just slurped our soup. And the entire conversation just resumed when we went to dinner.

"Angel, you can't name your pony after your bear!"

"But Celeste is such a pretty name!"

"I don't care how pretty it is, each name has to be unique, not named after something else!"

"I was named after an angel and you weren't complaining."

"That's because your wings are like an angel's! It's a different case when you don't know an angel personally."

"Look, break it up, break it up! Angel, you can name your pony after your bear, Nudge, yes it's a different case when you don't know an angel personally. But we're going to pick ponies after dinner, so quit fighting about names until you meet them!" Max's comment shut them up. I always admired her ability to do that and smiled at her. She grinned back, and we resumed eating our spaghetti in silence.

Once dinner was done, Max went with Nudge and Angel to see the ponies (Tara and Skye led the way because none of them had the hang of the house yet, and I think as servants, they never saw ponies themselves). I was about to go to my room, but Iggy grabbed my arm.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked me. "Alone please?" he said so Kyle, Dylan, and Taylor (who were clearing the table) couldn't listen in.

"Actually, Iggy, take Gazzy with you when you talk." Rina said. For some reason she was taking Demi aside to talk to her, but she added that and a meaningful look to Iggy before she closed the door.

"Fine, Gazzy, you come too." Iggy led us out the door, and we followed, not sure of what we were going to hear. Once we were far enough that no one would hear us, Iggy turned to me, arms folded across his chest. "I want to talk about Max."

"What about her?"

"You two look happy enough. I think it's time you take it to the next level."

"And what do you propose I do about it?"

"Propose, of course!" Whoa. Wasn't expecting that. Gazzy burst out laughing.

"Fang, you'd never do that, would you?" he inquired between snickers.

"Yeah, why should I?" I asked.

"You're happy, but you'd be happier if you were married or something. You're legal adults now, and I know you can do it. Your dad would pay for the wedding, too. There's nothing stopping you. And come on, you know you want to."

"Okay, so maybe I want to, hypothetically. But what if she doesn't say yes, even if I were to go with it?" I really did want to take it to the next level, now that I think about it, but what if Max didn't?

Iggy sighed. "You know why one morning Rina was sleeping next to me when the last night we hardly talked? Because I love her, and I got her before she felt like I didn't love her too. You snooze you loose, and even though she's your girlfriend, she still wants to be more. Believe me, I know. Rina told me. Just do it, get it over with, and get an answer. It's more than likely that she's going to say yes."

"How sure are you that she'll say yes?"

"I'm the boyfriend of a fortune-telling, mind-reading ex-genie. I know for sure."

I thought it through. Did we really want to go that far? I certainly wanted to, but what did Max think? I recalled one of our talks, when we were still living in the house in Woodland Park, when she said something about going further in relationships. "I think we're ready, but shouldn't we wait a year or two to make it official?" That was a year ago, when we were almost eighteen. Now we were both adults, and it would be possible, I guess. I still feel how much she loves me in her kisses, so maybe she does. Yeah, if Rina says she wants to, I guess I could propose to her. I'd do whatever makes Max happy.

"Fine, I'll do it. I'll propose to Max." Iggy grinned, looking proud of himself, and Gazzy did a little cheer, chanting something about lovebird leaders getting married. "On one condition." Iggy's smile froze and Gazzy paused his dance.

"What condition?"

"You propose to Rina." Gazzy burst into hysterics.

"Shut up, Nudge-lover, the minute you turn eighteen I'm forcing you to do the same!" Iggy's remark shut him up. "Now, as I was about to say, WHAT? Propose to Rina?"

"For the same reasons as me and Max. You look really happy, and I think Rina would love being your wife. And I don't want to do this alone. Come on, you love her enough. Do it."

"But-"

"Don't argue, you know you want to too. If I know Rina, she'll say yes. She never goes anywhere without you, and you're already sharing a bed! And you haven't had any problems yet, you love each other too much."

"She's too young!" Iggy blurted out before I could interrupt him again. I didn't have a response for him, but Gazzy did.

"She isn't too young. Angel read her mind and told me she's 1,304, and she's going to be 1,305 at the end of June. She just looks like she's seventeen, and she could morph to be older, but she doesn't because she'd be older than you, Iggy. She's not too young."

"Yeah, what he said. You should propose to her, she'd love you forever for it."

After a moment, he sighed. "Fine. I'll propose to Rina too. But you go first, I need to get lessons from Angel on how not to let Rina read my mind and find out about it."

"Fair enough. I'll go first."

"Shake on it?" Iggy held out his hand. I took it.

"Shake. And Gazzy, you have to swear not to tell anyone about this."

"Yeah, this needs to be a surprise. Don't even think about it."

"Think about what?"

"That's right." Iggy said.

"No, seriously, I wasn't listening to the last part."

Iggy rolled his eyes. "Don't even think about-"

"Gotcha!" Gazzy exclaimed. We grinned (I only smiled just a little bit), and we left for our various destinations. Iggy went to go find Angel and start his training, Gazzy went to the theater to watch a new episode of Futurama, and I went to my room to think of how to propose to Max. Should I make it quick and easy, or should I start a conversation leading up to the moment? This has to be just right….

**A/N: I was just going to stop the chapter here, but this is shorter than I thought it would be, so I'll just give you another chapter mixed in to make up for not updating soon and making this chapter short! YAY!**

**Chapter 6 ½: Servants and Secrets (formerly known as chapter 7)**

**POV Iggy**

As Fang went to his room to think of how he was going to propose, I went to go hunt down Angel and get my training started. I can't believe Fang did this to me. I gotta propose to Rina now! Oh well, she's the greatest girl in the world. But am I good enough for her? Maybe I should back out, and Max and Fang should just be boyfriend and girlfriend and so should me and Rina. She might say no, and then where would we be? No, I should do this for Max and Fang. They deserve more than what they have, and they'll definitely get a happy ending even if I'm not sure Rina and I will.

"Hey Iggy." I turned around to see Dylan waving at me at the other end of the hall. "Are you lost?"

"Yeah, can you help me find Angel?" In my deep proposal thoughts, I didn't realize I had no clue where I was going.

"Sure. But you just got the tour today, are you sure you were paying attention to where you were going?"

"I wasn't." I admitted. "I've got a lot on my mind."

"I'll say." Huh? That sounds like something a mind reader would say. "I just saw your expression and figured you had a lot on your mind." He explained, probably seeing my confused face. "But what are you thinking about?"

"The future."

"What specifically?"

"Life partners."

"Who specifically?" I stared at him. "Look, I'm going to get the truth out of you eventually, so you can cooperate, or you can sit through interrogation until I get it out of you."

"How much do you want to know?"

"I'd sell my sister to know."

"Why do you even want to know?"

"I'm curious. I want to help."

"Fine. I was talking with Fang about how he should propose to Max, and he said he would if I propose to someone else."

"Who?"

"Rina."

"Yeah, I thought you two might have a thing for each other. Continue." Somehow he didn't seem surprised. Were we really that affectionate?

"Well, now I gotta hunt down Angel and get lessons on how not to let Rina read my mind and find out I'm going to propose to her. Fang's going first. But I can't believe he talked me into this."

"You mean you don't want to do it?"

"Well, I guess I want to…"

"So what's the problem then? If you love her, and she loves you, nothing bad can happen to your relationship. Even if she says no, which has a microscopic chance of happening, you'll still be together because you'll miss each other if you aren't. And if she says yes, it'll just be a happy day for the both of you."

"You know, Dylan, you're right. I guess I was just worried of what would happen."

"Well, what happens is what happens. I don't think you should worry though. Just get in those stables and ask Angel for lessons." In our conversation, I never noticed that we had arrived at the stables already.

"Fine. And thanks, Dylan. You're a smart kid."

"No prob." He grinned, and walked back to the mansion as I opened the stable doors. Max was looking bored to death as Nudge was rambling on and on about the chocolate-colored pony she was standing next to (coincidentally, Nudge was just jabbering about how she should name her pony Chocolate, or did Cocoa sound better?), and Angel was petting a snow-white pony on the nuzzle while listening to Nudge.

"Hi Iggy." At first Angel didn't even look up from her horse, and Nudge and Max neglected my entrance completely, but then Angel read my mind, jumped up, and squealed. "Really? Is it true? Is that what you were talking to Fang about?" I nodded, stunned from her ear-splitting screech. "YAY! I can't wait! When are you going to do it? Can we watch? Can I be the-" I cut her off before she could spoil anything. Max and Nudge were already staring at us, confused.

"What's up?" Max asked.

"Nothing. I've got a surprise that Angel almost spoiled," I glared at her as I let my hand off her mouth, and she smiled angelically. "And I need to talk to her about it. Excuse us please?" See, I learned some manners from those stupid servants (the ones that always open the doors for us, not the six that serve us)! Not waiting for a response, I pried Angel from the horse and dragged her out the door with my mutant-strength. I took her to the closest private place, which was the garden.

"Sorry, I was just so excited!" Angel apologized, still bouncing up and down at the thought.

"You have every right to be. But there's more. I only agreed to propose to Rina if Fang proposed to Max first." I was interrupted by another energetic squeal from Angel. "Yeah, I know, he's going to propose, but anyways, the reason he's going first is because I need some help from you. I need mind-reading lessons so that Rina can't read my mind and find out I'm going to…well, you know. Can you help me?"

"Of course I can! Let's do it now." She taught me how to block my mind until we couldn't see each other in the twilight. We both have extremely good night vision, especially me, but the rest of the flock might wonder where we were, so we went to our rooms. Rina was in bed already, reading a hardback novel and waiting for me.

"Hey Iggy. What took so long?" she snapped her book closed and looked at me, ready to hear my excuse.

"I was in the theater with Gazzy. We got bored after Fang left." I explained, and placed decoy thoughts in my mind to throw her off the trail.

"Oh, okay. Any new episodes in the recordings?" she asked. I tried not to think thoughts like "she fell for it!".

"Nope, unfortunately. We just saw a marathon of movies and lost track of time."

"Well, as long as you had fun! How did the talk with Fang go?"

"It went well, actually. I got him to propose to her pretty quickly. I thought he'd just keep saying no until I had to go to desperate measures, but he must really want to marry her, he said it so quickly."

"Excellent! I wonder when and how he'll do it."

"Wouldn't you know?"

"Well, he hasn't decided, so the future's kinda blurry. It might be the day after tomorrow, though I can't be sure. And how he'll do it is a complete mystery."

"Wow, Fang has an indecisive side. Never thought I'd hear that. How about you and Demi? What's up with them?"

"Oh, that. Well, the thing is, she won't say. She must have picked up a few things from Kyle, because she gave away very little. But she said that they didn't have any mental problems or anything."

"Hmm, that's weird. Did she say anything else? Anything we can build on?" At this point I was in my pajamas and sitting alongside Rina in bed.

"No. Nothing." She said just a little too quickly. Odd, you'd think she wasn't saying the entire truth. But why? "I'm telling the truth. She didn't say anything."

"Oh. Sorry. But just what all did she say?"

"Well, I told her that I didn't trust people that I couldn't read, and she said we should trust them because there's nothing wrong with them and they don't have problems, they just might be special or something. I kept asking questions, but I got no answers. She just stared blankly at me. And my lie detector didn't say anything the whole time, so what little she told me must be true, even if they're only hints."

"I wonder why she would hint."

"I have no clue. I'm still going to keep an eye on her, but as long as she doesn't know why their minds are blocked, and she isn't lying, I guess I can let my guard down a bit." I think they're fine myself. Dylan's smart, but there was nothing extraordinary about them.

"Fine then. I guess we're good."

"Yeah. Good." Rina mimicked me absentmindedly, her mind in another universe. She only does that when she isn't being entirely truthful.

"Rina?"

"Hm?"

"Which galaxy is your mind exploring today?"

"It's just passing what you call the Omega star system at the moment. Why?"

"Come on Rina, you know I'm kidding. So what are you lying about?"

"Can't tell you." Oh, so she _was_ lying.

"Why not?"

"Demi swore me to secrecy. And it's not anything I can figure out."

"Maybe I can. Come on, Rina, we shouldn't keep secrets."

"Goodnight, Iggy." She lay down in bed, closing the matter for me, mainly because she doesn't wake up until she wants to. "Oh, and there are two new recordings, one Futurama, and one Simpsons. And Gazzy was the only one in the theater tonight." Dang. She knew I was lying too. But I'll never let her find out why. "And I'll never let you find out. I gave my word not to tell. Night."

I sighed and lay down on my side of the bed. "Night, Rina." My last thoughts before going to sleep: "Man, I hate lying to Rina. I wonder what she was lying about, though. Maybe when I show her what I was lying about she'll reconsider keeping her word. But how do I do it…..?"

**POV Rina**

I couldn't help it. I had to listen to his thoughts. He looked exhausted, but he managed to think a few thoughts before he drifted away. "Man, I hate lying to Rina. I wonder what she was lying about, though. Maybe when I show her what I was lying about she'll reconsider keeping her word. But how do I do it…..?" And then his gentle breathing and lack of thoughts told me he was asleep.

Iggy was going to show me what he was lying about? But what could it be? It must be an object since he said he was going to show it to me. But no matter. Should I tell him what Tali said?

Yes, I said Tali. That's Demi's real name. That's part of what I was lying about. She kinda let slip that they were using fake names. I learned that her fake name was Tali, but she wouldn't say the others' real names, probably for the best because I might call them their real name by accident. I could still remember our strange conversation.

"_Tali? What's a Tali?"_

"_It's my name."_

"_But your name is Demi. Isn't it?"_

"_No. That's my fake name." she covered her mouth, eyes wide open, afraid to say more._

"_So your real name is Tali?"_

"_Mh hm." She nodded, still muffled by her hands._

"_Do the other five use fake names?"_

"_Mh hm. But that's all I'll say on the subject." She unclamped her hands from her mouth to say that last sentence._

"_How come?"_

"_We're not supposed to tell anyone but you. So don't tell anyone, and I mean anyone, not even Iggy."_

"_But I tell everything to Iggy!"_

"_That's good. Builds trust when you tell everything to him. But don't tell him about this conversation."_

"_But if I'm not allowed to tell anyone, shouldn't I at least know a little more so I can see why I can't tell? Otherwise I'd see no reason not to tell, and then people would wonder all about what you said and eventually figure out what you're keeping from us."_

_She paused for half a second, trying to work out what I just said. "So basically I need to tell you more or you tell?"_

"_Precisely."_

"_Fine, then. Here's a hint. The reason we use fake names is to protect our identities so you don't recognize us."_

"_We'd recognize you? I don't think we've met six kids before, unless you're talking school friends."_

"_We might be."_

"_Anything else to tell me? Because I'm still lost."_

"_What else do you need to know?"_

"_How about why you're here in the first place?"_

"_Well, we need to protect you from…no. No way. That's going to far, I couldn't give a hint that would work and not reveal us. I said too much!"_

"_Look, why do you even have to use hints in the first place? There can't be a lot for a group of kids to hide."_

"_Actually, there's a lot to hide. We need to give hints because we're not sure you could handle the truth. Not now, anyways. When the time is right we'll tell you. But I'm not saying any more. I've said too much already."_

"_But what are you protecting us from?" She was silent. That girl was true to her word. I tried asking her other questions, but she just sat stony-faced and didn't speak. I was about to turn and go, but the moment I moved, she said "Wait!"_

"_What?" I turned instantly, ready to hear whatever extra detail she had._

"_You forgot to swear not to tell." My face fell just a bit._

"_Fine. What would convince you that I won't tell?"_

"_Well, a genie swear for starters, and do it during a pinkie-swear-cross-your-heart to make it extra official."_

"_What's a pinkie-swear-cross-your-heart?"_

"_It's when you make a pinkie swear with your right hand and then cross your heart with the same pinkie you swore on. Say the genie swear while you do the pinkie swear, and you've got one unbreakable vow." Well, I never heard of that before. Must be some kid thing._

"_Fine." She held out her right pinkie, and I took it with my own. "I, Rina-"_

"_No, you need to use your full name!"_

"_Ugh, do I have to?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Fine, then. I, Sabrina Carissa Bailey, do solemnly swear to never tell the information I have heard from…"_

"_Natalie Demetria."_

"_On this evening of June thirteenth." I took my pinkie away and crossed my heart with it. "Natalie Demetria is your full name?"_

"_I never knew my last name, and Demetria is my middle name. We're orphans."_

"_You are? I'm sor-wait, you're lying!"_

"_What?"_

"_I have powers other than mind reading, and one of them is detecting lies. You're not orphans. But who are your parents, then? And what's your last name?"_

"_Bye Rina! Nice talking with you!" she ran out the door, down the hall, and out of sight before I could stop her and force it out of her._

"_Okay, what was that about?"_ That was one of the strangest conversations I ever had. I had more questions than ever when we parted, and I couldn't even try and figure them out with Iggy! I don't understand, why did she have to make me swear not to tell? And why would she only tell so much? Even her hints left me a thousand questions each. Who were they? What were their real names? Why would they want to protect us? What were they protecting us from? And why wouldn't they tell us about their backgrounds?

I rolled over, away from Iggy. I was determined not to wake him up with my worrying and have him trying to break my vow again. It hurt too much to keep this from him. Thank god he doesn't have a built-in lie detector. I eventually got myself into a restless sleep. It wasn't enough, but it would do. But I slept a lot better when Iggy put his arm around my waist, even though he was still asleep.

_**If you like it and you know it, please review! (clap clap) If you like it and you know it, please review! (clap clap) If you like it and you know it and you really want to show it, if you like it and you know it please review! (clap clap)**_** Okay, I can't sing to save my life. But listen to the song and please review, I love them so much! I'll mention your name in the next chapter if you do, just to let you know! Hope you liked it! And sorry if I have any mistakes, I checked this over like ten times but I did my last editing while I was supposed to be asleep, so yeah. Sorry about the wait, and please review!**

**P.S: Longest chapter ever! More than 5,000 words, yay!**


	7. The First Proposal

_**Joy to the world, I got reviews! Oh thank you all so much!**_** Okay, once again, can't sing to save my life. But thank you all so so so so SO much to fang-is-yummy, MaxRideNut, Evil Angel of DOOM (you will get Iggy eventually, keep hope alive!), Bubble Blower, max ride girl, Maximum Ride all the way, and IssytheWriter for your reviews on the last chapter! I love my reviews, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy. And you'll just have to believe me about me doing my happy dance, I swear I have one! Maybe I should post a video of me doing it on youtube. When hell freezes over.**

**But anyways, what is up with those weird servants? Kinda confusing, don't you think? I'll explain them at the end, but in the meantime we've got some proposals to do! I'll try my best, but I'm just not that good at Fax stuff. Riggy I can do, because Rina is mine, but Max and Fang I have to not make OOC, plus everyone has expectations for them. Well, I'll try, and please don't throw too many tomatoes at my pathetic attempts!**

**Disclaimer: if their names aren't Rina, Demi/Tali (you decide what to call her), Kyle/unknown name, Dylan/unknown name, Tara/unknown name, Skye/unknown name, Taylor/unknown name (look, they all have real names, but do you really want to know what they are? I know them already), Charlie Denton, Alice (that's Fang's parents), Frank Bailey, Stella Bailey (Rina's parents), Tim Stewart, Maggie Stewart (Gazzy and Angel's parents), David Wilson, Desire Wilson (Nudge's parents), Matthew, or Angelina (Rina's siblings), then they aren't mine. Boy, do I have a lot of OCs! Mainly the flock's parents, I had to name them something! Yeah, now that I've listed all the OCs I ever thought of, oh, wait, I have a few others that I'm making up for other stories. Oh well, now that I've named a whole bunch of people I own, here's your chapter!**

**Chapter 7: The First Proposal (hey, did anyone notice that if this was Our Genie, Rina, we'd be right at the part where Rina just left and the flock was at the School? Oh yeah, plus I'm horrible at naming stuff. Have pity!)**

**POV Rina**

YES! I jolted up in bed at exactly 2:13 a.m when I heard the news. I was ready to squeal, I was so happy! I've been waiting for this ever since I found out they loved each other, and it's finally going to happen! I bounced in the bed, so excited I couldn't help myself. He finally figured it out!

"Uh, Rina?" I froze and looked to my right to see Iggy propped up on his elbow, still groggy and looking at me like I was insane.

"Yeah?"

"Why're you bouncin' like that?"

"Was there another way you wanted me to bounce?" he looked at me sourly. "Not a morning person, huh? Well, you would bounce too if you just realized what I realized!"

"Which is?"

"Fang just now decided how and when he was going to propose to Max!" that started another round of bouncing, which made Iggy awake enough to let it sink in.

"Really? Great. When will he do it?"

"Tomorrow night. He's going to say he can't sleep and take her for a walk in the garden."

"A walk in the garden? That doesn't sound much like Fang."

"Okay, so maybe I gave him a few ideas. But he's going to do it! Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, I can believe it. Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Spoilsport. Yeah, go back to sleep, I'll just stay up and celebrate!" he lay down and closed his eyes, but I doubted he was asleep. Something must be on his mind. This is Good Morning America, and our top story is "Iggy Griffiths Can't Sleep." Causes unknown, but officials suspect something is going on in his mind. Let's listen in on his mind to find out more! True to my little newscast, I listened in.

"_Well, Fang finally figured out how to propose. Good for him. But how do I…wait, shouldn't think about it._" Ugh, so frustrating! What was he keeping from me?

"What are you keeping from me?" I blurted.

"Huh?"

"You just thought something about how to do something, and I want to know what you want to do."

"Can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"It would spoil it."

"Spoil what?"

"Can't tell you."

"I know that. But why not?"

"It's supposed to be a secret, okay?

"Why should it be a secret?"

"Because you can't know."

"Why not?"

"Because it's embarrassing and a surprise."

"Why is it embarrassing and a surprise?"

"Not gonna tell you." Dang it, he didn't fall for it.

"Why not?"

"Rina, I'm going to tell you eventually. Now let me sleep." He lay down, trying to make it final. Stupid mortal side needing too much sleep. Hasn't he ever heard of coffee?

"Fine, mortal. But now I'm going to have to stay up and look through your mind and see what you're keeping from me."

"You wouldn't." He opened his eyes abruptly.

"I would. Oh, nice memory! Never knew you did that." I pretended to giggle and make him think that I just found an embarrassing memory. It worked, and he blushed.

"Don't even try to look in my mind, Rina, that's top secret stuff!"

"Oh, not to me! This is so much fun!"

"Quit it!"

"Stop thrashing around so much, it makes it harder for me to concentrate. Just go back to sleep, it'll all be over soon."

"Like hell I will! I'm going to stay up all night so you can't get my memory."

"Excellent! What do you want to do?" Not what I thought he'd do, but okay!

"Find out what _you're_ keeping from me."

"And how are you going to do _that_, oh powerless one?" Hehehe, this is so much fun!

"GASP! How could you say that to me?" he pretended to look hurt, but kinda overdid it. I tried to hold in my giggles, but it didn't work, and I laughed like there was no tomorrow. Iggy laughed along, looking proud of himself.

"No, seriously, how are you going to get it out of me?" I said while wiping away a tear.

"I have ways."

"Not if I swore not to tell you don't."

"Well, you can break a swear, can't you?"

"No, you can't. Not even if a genie were to make a swear with a human."

"Isn't there any loophole or exception or something?" his tone was getting desperate.

"No, I can't. I'm sorry, Iggy, I really am. It's just that I had to swear not to tell so then she would tell me more."

"But what good is it if you have some information but you can't tell anyone about it?"

"I know, I hate it too. Can we stop talking about this?"

"Sure." We were silent for a moment. I knew it was killing him not to know. It was killing me too. I never wanted to keep secrets from him. Why did Demi/Tali (what should I even call her?) want me to swear not to tell something I couldn't even figure out? I wish I could tell him.

"Rina?"

"Yeah?"

"Can't you just ask Demi to take the swear back or whatever cancels it?"

"I guess I could try. She has to be completely willing to call it off."

"Can you do it now?"

"Why? She'll be asleep."

"I know, but in the middle of the night she won't be able to think things completely through, and if you keep her up with that annoying way you have," I stuck my tongue out at him "she'll say yes just to go back to sleep."

"Iggy?"

"Yeah?"

"You're BRILLIANT! I'll ask her right now!" Iggy looked proud of himself, and I stood out of bed. I was gone with hardly any effort, and I appeared at the top of a staircase, with only a window and a single doorway on the walls surrounding me. I didn't have to look down the stairs or out the window to tell that this was the attic. But it was awfully cold and drafty, shouldn't six kids get to live in a warmer place? I opened the door to see where exactly these kids sleep.

Pathetic. Just pathetic. How could Mr. Denton put these kids in such a place? It wasn't even two rooms, just a medium-sized room with a dresser and bookshelves marking where walls should be. A gape in between the dresser and bookshelves probably served as a doorway to the other half of the attic. This "room" had a dining table with six chairs to the right. Some food was in the corner. Was that all they had to eat? I thought they looked a little lean, but that's just malnutrition. To the left was the bookshelves and a worn couch. And on the couch was Demi/Tali! She looked peaceful, her ever-present rocker glove resting on the arm of the couch. I think she could wait just a little longer to be woken, I had to see what the other "room" had.

I just peeked my head in enough to see what was in there. The left side was a dilapidated bunk bed. Tara was tossing and turning in the upper bunk, and Skye was nestled in the lower bunk, a teddy bear clung tight to her chest. I looked right to see a queen-sized bed that held all three of the boys in it. They hardly even fit in it, Kyle was almost falling off the edge, probably due to Taylor, who seemed to hog as much of the cramped bed as he could. Dylan tried to curl up against the wall and avoid Taylor at all costs. Poor boys.

"M-Rina!" A loud whisper brought me back to the other room to see Demi/Tali sitting up in bed, struggling to see me in the moonlight. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see where you guys live and ask you a question."

"This late?"

"Well, technically this early. And I just couldn't wait to ask you. It has to be now."

"Fine. Have a seat." She swung her legs over the side to admit me next to her. I took it. "Now what's up?"

"I was wondering if you could lift that little swear you made me do."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I hate keeping secrets from Iggy. He's just as anxious as me to know who you are and what you're doing here. And I really want to tell him, it's killing us both to have this secret." Despite all previous attempts, I couldn't help but have a look in her mind. I almost jumped when I actually got something. "_Aww, that's so sweet! They're showing signs of affection and trust already!_"

"I can read your mind!" I almost forgot to whisper. Her face clouded over. "_I'm going to kill Newt. Why does he have to sleep now? Couldn't he have heard her?_"

"Who's Newt?" I responded to her mind.

"No one." "_Why, oh why does she have to be like this?_"

"It's someone. You were going to kill him for not hearing me or something like that. But who is he?"

"I told you, no one."

"It must be someone you know, right?"

"Stop trying to find out!"

"What, I want to know!"

She moaned "Fine. I'll give you three guesses." "_I'll see what harm it can do later._"

"Is it Kyle?"

"No."

"Is it Taylor?"

"Nope. One more guess."

"Is it Dylan?"

"Maybe." _Dang it!_ I took that as a yes and grinned.

"He's Newt? Aww, that's so cute! Instead of Dylan and Demi you're Newt and Tali. Did you pick your own names? And what are Taylor and Kyle's real names if Dylan's is Newt?"

"Kinda. And I shouldn't tell you their names."

"Why not?"

"Look, never mind about the names." "_She better not ask about Jake and Zak again._"

"Are their names Jake and Zak?" This was fun, torturing Demi/Tali!

"Stop reading my mind! Didn't you want to get rid of this swear?" "_Please play along! They'll kill me if they found out I told you about their names!_"

"Yeah, I want to get rid of the swear. But why would they kill you?"

"Because you're not supposed to know!" I'm surprised she still remembered to whisper, she sounded so frustrated.

"It's only simple curiosity. I only want to know for the sake of knowing."

"No! If I take away the swear will you leave the matter alone?"

"It might help. Now which one is Jake?"

"Fine, I'll level with you! There never was a swear. I didn't use my full name, so it doesn't count. You could have told him anyways. There! Swear gone! Get out!"

"Is it Kyle? I thought he looked like a Jake, if not a Mini Fang." Sure, I heard her news, and it should have been obvious, but I still wanted to see just how far she would go.

"Well you'll never know, now, will you?" she pulled me to the door. Well, almost, I'm colossal compared to her tiny form.

"I've got it figured out! Kyle is Jake and Taylor is Zak! Nice names, I like them."

"Quit finding out or I'll put the swear back on!" It's a wonder she could whisper and still sound that fierce. But I liked this, it was like I was a little kid just realizing a swear word and my mother was trying to undo the mistake of saying it and make me forget it. Pushing people over the edge is so funny!

"Fine, I'll go. But on one condition."

"I'm not telling you their names."

"Not that."

"What then?"

"Ask Jake what he was dreaming about tonight." Hey, it was true, she should ask him. I could almost hear him muttering "Tali…Tali…." from here. I wonder how long he dreamed about her.

"Huh?" _Why did I never know she was this annoying?_

"You'll see. I could show you right now, if you want."

"No thanks, I think I'll just show you something. The door." She opened the door as the universal "please leave before I make you" sign.

"Fine. But ask him. And thanks for telling me the swear wasn't real!" I poofed back to Iggy's room to find him asleep again. Poor guy, tried to stay up and wait for me, but no one's perfect. I think he'd be better off knowing now. I tried to shake him awake.

"Later, five more minutes." He waved me away. I consisted.

"Go away Dylan!"

"It's Rina." He jerked up.

"What's up?"

"The sky, the clouds-"

"You know what I mean."

"I found out that Jake-sorry, you know him as Mini Fnick, anyways, he dreams about Tali- that's Demi- in his sleep."

"What are you talking about? Aren't those their original names?"

"Maybe I should start from the beginning?"

"Please do, we don't all know everything."

"There never was a swear to begin with. Demi didn't use her full name, so it didn't count. And by the way, her real name is Tali." He cocked his head, confused, and I proceeded with the story. It was almost four in the morning when I finished. Iggy sat there stunned.

"Whoa."

"Yeah, you got that right."

**Several hours (and tries to figure everything out) later…. (A/N: sorry about that, it didn't have to do with anything, but I wanted to, and there really was no swear, so why not say it sooner and add some annoyance and a hint or two into the mix? Because I friggin' CAN, that's why! Now on with important stuff!)**

Iggy and I went to breakfast with bags under our eyes (figuratively, I took care of the actual bags, it just felt like that). Between mouthfuls of food, Max looked over our tired figures.

"Rough night, huh?"

"Kinda." Iggy replied and sent me a small smile, which I returned. Max gave us a look that clearly said "I don't wanna know" and went back to torturing the poor waffle with her ravenous eating. We sat down and dug in. As Demi/Tali cleared my plate (sometimes she serves me), she sent me a weird look.

"What?" I froze time so we could speak freely.

"I asked Jake what he was dreaming about last night."

"Oh yeah, that." I grinned, surprised that a boy could like a girl like that so young. "How did it go?"

She scowled. "Wouldn't you know?"

"I said it with Fang and I'll say it again. I love to hear you say it."

"He wouldn't tell me. Wondered why I wanted to know."

"Ah, yes, I thought he'd do that."

"Of course you did. But could you tell me what he was dreaming about?"

"Why should I?"

"You're the one who brought this up."

"Touché. But are you sure you don't want to back out now?"

"Absolutely. What is it?"

"He was dreaming about you." Her mouth hung open and she was speechless. If flies weren't frozen at the moment they'd be fighting for the vacancy in her mouth.

"One more time?"

"Jake. Was. Dreaming. About. You. Does that surprise you?" I took it slow for her. She looked like she was either going to scream or faint. I'd place money on both just to see what happens.

"Yeah. Kinda. You sure?"

"Positive. You want proof?"

"Nah, I'll take your word for it."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need some food. You want some too? I saw how much you had, that's just malnutrition."

"I'm good. We sneak into the kitchens when they don't give us enough." I was about to unfreeze time and resume my breakfast, but just before I did, I snapped a quick picture of Fang and Max glancing at each other and smiling. C'mon, I need some proof!

**Later that night…. (Yes, that last part was pointless, but why not?)**

**POV Fang (Makes things easier, says what he's feeling. One last warning, I have never proposed to anyone or even witnessed a proposal except for that one on America's Funniest Home Videos, so if this isn't accurate, or if this isn't even good romance, let me just say that ****I am sorry. I am not good at this.**** On with proposal thingie!)**

Now or never. I know I'm going to do it tonight, but I don't know how I'm going to say it. I'm not even sure why I'm going to ask her in the garden, maybe Max will just like it there. It was eight fifteen. Better get this over with.

My door opened soundlessly, and I tiptoed the three steps to Max's door. I paused, but gathered enough courage to tap on her door. I know, I know, the emotionless Fang is nervous and afraid of rejection. Just laugh it up while you can, but when you propose to your life-long love you'll feel the same way I feel.

The door swung open to reveal Max, as radiant as ever in sweats and a loose T-shirt. My breath quickened. _She wore Aeropostle today._ Did I mention that I have a weakness for Max when she wears Aeropostle? It's just the way the clothing slides so naturally over her figure, it just takes my breath away. I lost myself for half a second, and then spoke. "Hey, wanna walk?"

"Uh, sure." She was wondering why I was asking her to do this. I knew her enough to know that. She'll see. We walked silently through the corridors. Imagine that, corridors. We could be in freakin' _Hogwarts_ for all I saw (I heard about Hogwarts when these girls at school were talking about some Larry Otter guy and this magic school he went to while he was fighting Moldydort). I could feel Max tense beside me. She didn't question when I led her out the door and into the garden. If anything she relaxed a bit.

"Hey Fang?"

"Hm?"

"Why are we here?"

"I dunno."

"Why are we in the garden and not in bed or something?"

"Are you saying you actually _want_ to have a curfew?" I grinned a bit, and she weakened. I wonder why that is.

"No, just why did you ask me out here?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"It was barely eight."

"Then let's put it at I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. How's that?" I parked myself on a nearby bench that overlooked some roses, and Max followed my lead. I don't know why, but whenever it was just Max and me, I could talk more. I knew she would listen to whatever I said, even when I didn't have much to say. It's like there were no restraints whenever Max was near. I didn't say a lot only because I had a reputation to keep.

"That's good, I guess." We were silent. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing."

"Same." We sat on that bench for who-knows-how-long, staring at the moon or the plants. Any other night I would have been content with just this, but tonight I needed to propose. I was anxious, trying to think of a way to start this. But I didn't need to because Max felt me.

"Fang?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"Stuff." I would have shrugged, but her head was on my shoulder and I didn't want to disturb her apparent peace.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Just stuff."

"God, Fang, do I have to drag it out of you every time? Just tell me!" I sighed internally. She shouldn't be frustrated, but what else could I do?

"Well, actually, I was wondering…what if we took this farther?"

"What do you mean 'farther'?" she sat upright. Dang, I was really loving her on my shoulder.

"As in more."

"What specifically?"

How am I going to explain this? A vision of Iggy reminding me of how he and Rina got together came into my head. How's that supposed to help me? Oh, wait, Iggy and Rina! "Well, remember when we woke up that one morning to see Iggy and Rina sleeping next to each other?"

"Back when she was still a genie? Yeah, I remember that."

"Yeah, thing was Iggy knew he loved her, and he took them to the next level. He made the first move, told her he loved her, and now they're happy."

"We're already kinda at that level, if you haven't noticed."

"Yeah, I know. But maybe we could take it to the next level?"

"Which is?"

"Guess."

"You want us to share a bed?" Iggy wouldn't like that comment. I could almost hear him growling in dismay.

"Kinda."

"What then?"

Oh boy. "Uh…Max, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just say it the way everyone else does. Max, will you marry me?" The area was as silent as a tomb. I was frozen in fear, and Max was frozen in surprise. What would she say? And should I have been on one knee holding a wedding ring or something?

"Fang…" she sounded completely astonished. I knew it, I knew I should have waited a couple of years, played it safe. I braced myself for the rejection I was sure to receive. "Fang, of course I'll marry you!" She touched my cheek gingerly, her perfect hand grazing the side as it sank in. _She said yes._ Oh my god, she said yes! She's going to be my wife! Acting on impulse only, I kissed her with so much force it took me a little while to realize I needed to breathe. She kissed me back with equal compulsion. This was the best kiss we better shared. Everything was forgotten except Max. Her body, her soft skin, her hand still on my face, the flavor her kiss gave me. Her acceptance. She's going to be my wife.

We broke apart when it got too unbearable without air. Once we were finished gasping, we grinned at each other. Max's grin was so spectacular, I could have melted on the spot.

"That was nice." She said.

"Agreed." And then my left pocket was burning. Seriously, I could feel the heat through the fabric. I glanced at the fabric and saw no flames, but there was a weird shape taking place of the emptiness. The millisecond it stopped burning, I dug my hand in there and pulled out a ring. It was small, gold, and with a tiny diamond at the top. It looked Max-sized enough. I held it out to her. "Here."

"Thanks." She took it and slipped it on her left ring finger. It fit perfectly. We had barely enough time to wonder how I got that ring when an excited squeal came out of nowhere, and invisible arms wrapped around me and Max.

"NUDGE!" four voices shouted in unison. Rina and Iggy appeared next to the bushes on our right with matching scowls, Angel was standing next to some potted plants with a huge grin on her face, and Gazzy was attempting to pull Nudge off of me and Max.

"Sorry, it's just it's about time and it's such a happy moment and it's so sweet and I couldn't help myself!" Nudge grinned apologetically at us.

"What are you doing here?" Max asked. At least she didn't sound mad, just puzzled.

"No one said we couldn't look in." Rina said, like she was stating a fact.

"No one said anything!"

"Fang, you should have said no eavesdroppers." Iggy pretended to scold me. Max turned to me.

"They knew?"

I shook my head. "Iggy knew, and probably Rina and Angel because they read minds. Other than that, no clue."

"Well, so maybe I invited them to come watch with me." Rina said. She didn't look sorry at all, merely amused and please that we were getting married.

"Can I be the flower girl?" Angel asked sweetly.

"What do I get to be if she's the flower girl?" Nudge asked everyone.

"You could be a bridesmaid, or the maid of honor. Max's choice, though." Rina told her.

"What about me, what do I get to be?" Gazzy asked. "And what's Iggy going to be?"

"Look, guys, guys, you had your little show. We'll figure out the wedding later, I promise. But right now you need to go to bed." Max's remark was met with groans from the little kids, and shrugs from Iggy and Rina. Of course they'd shrug, they get to share a bed! But after Max enforced it, they shuffled off one by one back to the mansion, after congratulating us in some way, of course. Angel planted a somewhat sticky kiss on our cheeks, Nudge hugged us one more time, Gazzy and Iggy both smiled, and Rina said "Congrats! And you're welcome for the ring!" before she sprinted up the hill to catch up with Iggy. Max turned to me.

"And I'll see you in the morning." She murmured. After a quick peck on the cheek, she started towards the mansion to make sure everyone got in bed and didn't wander off into the video game room. I stayed behind a little longer, reflecting in my luck. Max was going to marry me. Everyone was alive and well. I met my father. I was heir to a huge fortune (don't care so much about that one). Life is good.

**POV Max**

Fang asked me to marry him! He was going to be my husband! I know I'm not going to sleep tonight.

**POV Gazzy**

Fang actually proposed to Max! I thought it was just some weird dare thing.

**POV Angel**

Max said yes! I hope I'm the flower girl.

**POV Nudge**

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

**POV Rina**

Well it's about time! The wedding ought to be fun! Max better not pick that pink maid of honor dress for me to wear, I hate that color on me.

**POV Iggy**

Great, now I have to propose too. How's the reception as a good time to ask Rina?

**There, I tried Fax and proposals. Did you like it, or did it totally stink? You know I like to know! And you never know when I'm going to mention your name when you review! So please, tell me what you think!**

**Oh yeah, plus next chapter's going to be the wedding!**

**Another thing, sorry this took so long to post, but my first day of school was Tuesday, and I got homework and I had to write this bit by bit, except now it's a weekend so I can stay up late! Yeah, sorry this took forever to get up. And it might have a few mistakes, sorry about those too.**

**Please review!**


	8. Wedding Bells and Doves

_**Why do I (bang) always (bang) get (bang) sick (bang) on (bang) the (bang) weekends?**_** Sorry I'm banging my head and all that, it's just that I always get sick on the weekends, and I was planning to be healthy so I could update without too many flaws and never having to get up every five minutes for tissues, but allergies just had to show up, so now I have to update while I'm sick. I'll try! But I'm all woozy and sneezy so it might not be as good as you hoped. Ugh, my head….**

**Well, trying to forget that, thank you so much to Bubble Blower, xxApocalypsexx, S.L. Michaels, fang-is-yummy, Maximum Ride all the way, max ride girl, Hallie Lynette, and Evil Angel of DOOM for reviewing! If it means anything you guys rock my world! And S.L Michaels gets credit for giving me ideas! Better give you what you were waiting for, then. Enjoy!**

**Quick, wait, one more thing! Attention Twilight fans! There's going to be another Twilight book called Breaking Dawn, and then there's going to be Twilight in Edward's POV called Midnight Sun! (squeal) Can you believe it??!! I heard from S.L Michaels, she's got the details. And there's a preview to Midnight Sun on the internet, but I couldn't find it. Well, sorry to Max Ride fans, now on with the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: did you think I own it? No? Didn't think so. Plus I don't own the songs I'm going to mention for the reception. It'd be so cool if I did, though!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Wedding Bells and Doves**

**POV Max**

Fang and I (with plenty of unwanted help from the flock) decided to hold our wedding in two weeks. That gave us a good amount of time to get ready, tell our parents, and plan the wedding. Fang's dad didn't react the way I thought he would when Fang said we were getting married. If anything he welcomed me with open arms! I'll bet Fang's dad was just happy that Fang found a good enough person to spend the rest of his life with. But that's only my guess.

We thought we'd hold the wedding in the garden, near the bench Fang proposed to me. It would be small, just us and the flock and a few of the servants. I invited Mom and Ella, but not Jeb. Come on, you don't honestly think I'm going to invite my evil scientist dad to my wedding! The reception was going to be in the ballroom (yeah, yeah, he has a ballroom, laugh it up).

And then of course we would need to see what the flock would do. Iggy was going to be Fang's best man, and I picked Rina as the maid of honor. Nudge could have been the maid of honor, but she was younger, and the motormouth thing might ruin it. Instead Nudge was a bridesmaid, and Angel was a flower girl. Gazzy was the ring bearer. Kyle, Dylan, Demi, Tara, Skye, and Taylor would be ushers (they really did want a part in the wedding, and Fang and I couldn't think of anything else for them to be).

Nudge, and Angel (and partially Rina) were very insistent on picking a wedding dress for me to wear. I already picked matching white and light blue dresses for them to wear, but now they wanted to help me find my dress. So the Saturday before the wedding we took a limo into the closest town and went to their dress store. It was kinda chaos from there.

"Max, look at this one!"

"But this one has a train, it would look so beautiful when you go down the aisle!"

"This one's satin, it's really soft and airy."

"How about that one over there? Oh wait, that's on hold. But there might be a similar one!"

"Guys, guys! Let's just take it slow, it's only a dress!" I told them.

"But Max, don't you want to look nice when you get married?" Angel asked.

"Well, yeah, but if you fight over these dresses any more the store clerk will go insane." I lowered my voice so the woman at the desk couldn't hear us. She didn't look like she wanted to be angered. The girls took the hint, and browsed in near silence. We saw some nice dresses, and they made me try a few on, but none of them felt right. My wings were itching for some space in the tight backs, and I felt awkward when Rina made them dissolve into my back. We were about to try another store, but when Demi, Tara, and Skye came in to escort us out, Tara and Skye ran into the racks and made just as much noise as Nudge and Angel were making earlier.

"Tara, Skye, get back here!" Demi called after them. Everyone chased after them, and when we finally caught them, they were looking at one dress with no back, a hem that just barely grazed the ground, and no straps.

"Look at this dress, it would look so pretty on you, Max!" Skye said. I had to admit, it did look kinda nice.

"She's right, try it on Max!" Nudge said. "Just one more dress, I promise!" Before I could remind her that she said that five dresses ago, they all pushed me into the dressing room. Sighing, I shed my jeans and shirt and slipped on the dress. It did feel comfy, especially to my wings, which got to stretch out through the back. I barely had to place one foot out before everyone started grinning.

"They were right." Rina said. "You look great. Fang won't be able to keep from drooling!"

"Yeah, what she said! You look so nice, Max!" Angel was positively beaming. You'd think they never saw me in a dress before!

"Wow, that looks so beautiful!" Nudge commented. Tara and Skye were too busy giving each other high fives for their success, and Demi was nodding slightly with a small smile. We bought the dress and went back home, where the boys were waiting for us.

**A few hours later**

"Okay, so we're going to have shrimp, those little cocktail wieners, cheese puffs, and a buffet for food. Now how about entertainment?" Rina went over the list of things we'll need for the reception. Fang and I glanced at each other. He was bored stiff too, I could tell. We just wanted to have a small wedding, nothing special, but then the girls took charge, and suddenly everything had to be fancy and expensive (not like it was a problem, I just didn't want to spend a lot of money).

"Let's have a band play for us and people can dance!" Nudge suggested. "And we could have really slow songs and rock songs and songs that you can dance to, but not that hip hop stuff or country music because that doesn't go with weddings, or do they? I never heard of people who did hip hop for their reception, but I never heard about a lot of receptions, I've never even been to one! I wonder what they're like, I heard about one where Heather's sister got married and she went to the wedding and she said the reception had this huge ice sculpture shaped like a swan and when her sister and her new brother kissed at the end of the vows everyone got to throw rice at them and it turned into a fight between her and her cousins to see who could get the most rice in this one lady's wig and Heather won because she cheated and-" Rina tore a piece of the notebook paper and handed it to Iggy, who stuffed it expertly into Nudge's mouth to get her to stop talking.

"Well, a band would be kinda nice." Rina agreed as Nudge was peeling the wet paper off of her tongue. "Even lower class weddings have them. Who would you want?" she asked us.

"Uh, no one?" I offered.

"Why not?" Angel's face fell, and she gave me Bambi eyes. Dang, I hate those evil Bambi eyes.

"Fine." I groaned. "We can have a band." Angel and Nudge grinned, and Gazzy shrugged.

"You sap." Fang actually said it this time.

"You saw the Bambi eyes." I elbowed him softly.

"I'll say it again. Any specific bands?" Rina prompted us. We both shrugged.

"I dunno. Someone good?" I suggested.

"There are a lot of those types of bands."

"Someone new?"

"Not quite as many, but still plenty."

"Someone we're familiar with?"

"Now we're getting somewhere!"

I looked to Fang. "Any help with this?"

"Nope."

"Look, guys." Iggy sounded pretty bored. "You can get any band in the world to perform at your reception. Is there anyone at ALL that comes to mind when we ask you this?"

"No." Fang and I said at the same time.

"Hey guys. Lunch time." Dylan came in and saw us all gathered around Rina and the list. "Hey, whatcha doing?"

"Planning the wedding." Iggy answered, apparently more familiar with him than the rest of us. "It's taking forever, mainly because Max and Fang can't pick a stupid band to play at the reception."

"Oh. Well, we could do it." Huh? We all stared at him in confusion.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Rina asked.

"'We' as in me, Demi, Kyle, Tara, Skye, and Taylor."

"And you would do what exactly?" I inquired.

"Play music."

"You play?" Nudge was getting impatient.

"Yeah. Well, Demi sings, though she'll never admit it, and Tara does technical stuff, but the rest of us play instruments. We could do it, if you want. You wouldn't have to force us or pay us or wipe our memories or anything."

"He has a point." Rina turned to us. "We know them, why not?"

"What instruments do you guys play?" Gazzy asked out of curiosity.

"Kyle plays guitar, I'm base, Skye plays keyboards, and Taylor drums. And Demi sings, and Tara does technical stuff to make the sounds sharper or louder or whatever."

"Do you have experience?" this one was from Iggy.

"Nope. But we sound pretty awesome whenever two or three of us practice at the same time. In my opinion, anyways." I turned to Fang.

"Should we?"

He shrugged. "It's either that or pick a band at random and have them-" he nodded towards the rest of the flock watching us "criticize our taste."

"Good point." I turned to Dylan. "You're in."

He grinned, apparently enthusiastic. "Excellent! Our first gig. And now that you've agreed, we have a small difficulty."

"What?" I asked.

"Demi won't sing. She's the best of us, but she thinks she sucks."

"Just how good is she?"

"Scary good. Whenever she sings everyone stops and stares at her. She thinks it's bad, though."

"Just drag her onto the stage if you have to."

"Okay!" he seemed pretty content to have to drag his sister onto a stage and make her sing. He turned to leave, but swiveled around. "Oh yeah, lunch is up in a sec."

**The Wedding Day**

**POV Iggy**

This tux is _not_ comfy. I could see Gazzy squirming a bit in the itchy fabric, and even Fang looked a little unhappy, even though he was wearing black. I also saw Fang's slight happiness to be getting married, even in the twilight (they decided to have the wedding at twilight). But still, I don't know why we have to dress up, I'm not the one getting married.

"_But you will be soon._"

"_Angel!_"

"_What? So I heard you. Big deal. It's true, you'll be the one in Fang's place soon._" I glanced once again at Fang, who was standing at the little makeshift altar that was actually some pavement near the roses with a canopy above us. Fang looked so nervous for no reason. The priest guy on the other hand looked bored, like he did this a thousand times, and he sure looked liked he lived long enough to have done so. I could almost see my name written with his wrinkles. But back to Angel.

"_What makes you think she'll say yes?_"

"_Do I need to spell it out for you? Wait, can't right now, I'm going to come out in a sec. Got the ring in place?_"

"_Yeah._" I could still feel the ring of doom lodged in my shirt pocket. I couldn't see it, but it felt like a huge weight on my chest. Gazzy (the ring bearer, who ironically has to stand next to me, the best man, who is also carrying a ring) elbowed me, and I looked up to see Angel coming down the aisle, grinning like crazy with her flower petals. She winked at me as she took her place on the other side of the altar and clung to her now-empty basket.

Up next was Nudge, the bridesmaid. She walked in slow motion, looking like a prom queen without the tiara. I think she was overdoing it, but she never did this before, so I took pity. The silence must have been killing her, because when she got to Angel she began rambling in a frenzied whisper, probably asking if she was okay walking down the aisle and when Max was going to come out. But I forgot Nudge as Rina came down the aisle.

Whoa. I thought Rina was pretty in her pajamas. I should have seen her with a dress. The light blue fabric brought out the red highlights in her hair (which was in a bun at the moment), and she almost sparkled with every step. She walked with dignity, probably the only one who did this before. And then she tripped. It was a small one, maybe a wobble, but I was five steps away from my post before she got up again. She sent me a special smile as soon as she got to her place parallel to me, despite her blush. She looked dazzling.

"_Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself._" For once I was glad that I wore this tight tux. Then everyone's eyes were averted when it was Max's turn. She looked great. Not as good as Rina, but I bet to Fang she was eye candy. The white dress just barely trailed off of the floor, and it was strapless and struggling to stay on her figure. But the most outstanding part was that the dress had no back, so Max's wings were outstretched behind her! The crowd drew in a breath, which I would usually think was traditional, but this time it was for a different reason rather than how stunning she looked. The priest guy looked unphased, even when Rina opened the backs of our tuxes and dresses to reveal our own wings (oh man that felt so good!), and began the vows.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join…." He forgot their names already.

"Fang." Fang prompted.

"Max." She followed suit.

"Fine, then, Fang and Max, in holy matrimony. But before the vows, a poem. This one is 'Love' by Shell Silverstein." Ugh, great, one of those boring weddings where there's more talking than reception. Yawn. Apparently Rina thought along the same lines, because the next thing we knew, the priest was talking at super speed, and he sounded like one of those tapes when you fast-forward and the voice is all high pitched and fast. The audience (we don't have much of one, just some of Fang's dad's friends, Dr. Martinez, Ella, and some other people we knew) was either really confused or trying to keep from laughing. I leaned over to look at Rina. She was staring at the ceiling with a small smile and an innocent look on her face. Too innocent.

"Rina." I grinned but tried to look stern.

"What, he was going to do this for hours! I'm doing you a favor, trust me." She gave up all pretenses.

"Well, I was going to ask why you didn't do that to Nudge, but that works too!" Rina giggled, and then remembered to slow the priest down to the vows.

"Do you, Fang Denton, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold-" Rina sped him up a little more. "-as long as you both shall live?"

"Yeah." That's Fang, never says two words unless he needs to. He won't say "I do" if that takes away his reputation. Not even "Yeah, sure." But that's disrespect.

"Do you, Maximum Ride, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health-" once again, Rina couldn't resist skipping just a little more. "-as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." Eh, what else is she supposed to say?

"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss." They didn't need any more notice than that. They went right at it, and they looked pretty happy to be married. Everyone applauded, especially Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy. I think they were happy that Fang and Max were _finally_ married.

"_I'll say._"

"_Hey Rina. Enjoy the wedding much?_"

"_Yeah, the looks on your faces were worth it!_"

"_Any particular reason you want to read my mind?_"

"_Just to see what you thought of the wedding and to remind you that you owe me a dance_"

"_I owe you a dance? I don't think we made a contract saying I owe you one._"

"_You're the best man, I'm the maid of honor, and naturally they both dance after the bride and groom. Tradition stuff._"

I shrugged. "_Okay, but I can't dance._"

"_I know, me neither. I always blow it by tripping. You saw me in the aisle._"

"_Yeah, but still, should we get to the reception about now? I would never miss an opportunity to see Fang dance._"

"_Hehe, good point, but first we need to sign the marriage certificate, remember?_"

"_Oh, yeah, that._" Without further adue, we stepped up to the impatient priest waving the marriage certificate up for us to sign. Rina went first, her signature as neat as ever, and after my wobbly script we headed up the hill to the ballroom.

When we got in there, it was packed. The claustrophobia was already starting to sink in because there were so many people in this huge room (Fang's dad invited them all). My breathing got shallower as some wife of a coworker of Fang's dad laughed way too loud, and I started sweating as the warmth of all those close bodies got to me. Then it all disappeared as Rina grabbed my hand and used her thumb to stroke my knuckles.

"Everything is fine. You'll get through." I knew she was using her powers to calm me down, but just her hand soothed me enough. I grinned at her, grateful that I felt better. I'd need it for what I was going to do later.

We made our way to a table at the other end of the ballroom, over by the stage. Nudge waved at us while talking with Angel and Gazzy about who-knows-what, and Max and Fang were watching the room full of people with anxious expressions. Rina gave them a good stare, and they relaxed, just like I did. We took our seats (conveniently moving mine next to hers) right as the band started.

"Testing, testing." It was Dylan (I know that's his fake name, but I'll call him Dylan anyways) who was speaking into the mike and not Demi, which was odd. I thought she was going to sing tonight. "Testing. Little more volume!" he called over to Tara, who was sitting with a laptop backstage. "Okay, now that you all can hear me, let's start with the first dance. I'll be singing this one, and then our professional will come out and make me look pathetic with her voice." A few people chuckled at that. "But for now, let's have the bride and groom come out for their first dance." Max and Fang rolled their eyes, but got up because the applause was so demanding. Kyle started the first few notes to "Hey There, Delilah", and then Dylan started the song while playing base.

"Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City? I'm a thousand miles away but girl tonight you look so pretty, yes you do. Times Square can't shine as bright as you, I swear it's true. Hey there Delilah, don't you worry about the distance, I'm right there if you get lonely, give this song another listen. Close your eyes. Listen to my voice, it's my disguise, I'm by your side." The song continued as Fang and Max slowly circled around the room. Neither of them could dance, but it was really fun watching them try! Fang could have grimaced if Max hadn't smiled at him and put her head on his shoulder. So now he looked content. Some other couples got onto the dance floor and copied Max and Fang. I figured I better do the same.

"You wanna dance now?" I held out my hand to Rina. She took it.

"Anytime." We headed next to Max and Fang and started trying to dance. It was kinda awkward since neither of us knew how, but we tried, and eventually Rina ended up resting her head on my shoulder, facing away from Max and Fang. Imagine that, me, Iggy, with a great girlfriend on my shoulder, dancing at Max and Fang's wedding reception. That's kinda weird.

I caught Fang's eye to see if he had fallen asleep yet. Feeling my gaze, he looked back, and unseen by anyone else, he mouthed "your turn." I rolled my eyes and looked away. By then the dance had ended, and we went back to the table. Applause followed the end of the song, and everyone but Kyle took a bow (Kyle just stood there stiffly).

"Okay, now that I have thoroughly embarrassed myself, give me a sec." Dylan said and followed Kyle backstage, coming out a moment later with Demi, still in her dress. Apparently she was being dragged over to the mike, because she kept trying to stop them and say things like "I can't sing!" (I read her lips) Dylan and Kyle just ignored her, and when she tried to tell them one last time Kyle said something like "we had a deal" and left her. She stood frozen, staring at the huge room. She surveyed our table particularly. I sent her a small smile to encourage her, and Rina waved next to me. That made her thaw out.

"Uh, hi everyone. That was my brother, Dylan, singing 'Hey There Delilah'. I'm Demi, and I'll be singing the rest of the time. Now just to warn you, everyone has this weird thought that I can sing well. I'll tell you now that I can't. We just had a little deal. So please don't throw too many tomatoes, this dress is my only one!" our little band took that as a cue to start playing. I didn't listen to Michelle Branch much, but I recognized "All You Wanted" almost instantly. When it was Demi's turn to sing, I was expecting some screeching voice or something like that (hey, she said she was bad, what else do I expect?), but it wasn't that. It sounded more like Michelle Branch herself, maybe better. I was a little surprised that she could sing so well. Once she finished the applause was almost deafening. She grinned, surprised, and took a bow. Then she began "Girlfriend" (which I'm pretty sure is by Avril Lavigne), and everyone started dancing. Rina got caught in the music and pulled me on the dance floor, but not before I could place the wedding ring on the table, hidden by the drinks. Otherwise it might get loose and ruin the surprise.

**POV Rina**

I don't know what Demi/Tali was thinking (still don't know what to call her! Maybe I'll just call her Demi to help me remember), but she was a perfect singer. It almost drove me crazy trying to figure out why she kept all that hidden talent inside of her. When she began "Girlfriend" I pulled Iggy onto the dance floor, even though I would usually never dance more than once. It's a special occasion, why not?

A few songs later, Demi signaled for the band to stop, and turned to face the crowd, no longer afraid of being rejected. "Okay guys, now it's time for the best man to make the toast. Iggy?" Iggy turned to me again as Demi, Kyle, Dylan, Skye, and Taylor headed off stage for a mini break.

"Give me a sec?"

"Sure, go ahead." He grabbed a wine glass from the buffet table and climbed onstage. Demi came up and grabbed some orange juice. "Hey!" I greeted her.

"Hey Rina." She turned to face me, saving her glass of orange juice for the toast.

"That was great singing up there. Why didn't we know you were that perfect?" she blushed.

"I just never thought I was good, I guess. But Taylor kinda heard me singing in the shower and told everyone else, so next thing I knew I was onstage singing at this reception. It's no big, really."

"I think it's big. You guys should think about going professional." By now Iggy was starting the toast, so we were whispering, just like old times. Demi smirked.

"I'm only thirteen! We can't yet."

"You should still consider it. It beats the heck out of serving us."

"Nah, it's not as bad as you'd think."

"Oh, he's about to toast them!" I grabbed a glass of wine from a passing waiter, but Demi whisked it away, turned around, grabbed an apple juice, and placed it in my hand in one fluid motion. I was about to question her, but Iggy was already halfway through.

"Here's to Max and Fang." He concluded, and drank up. Everyone followed suit, me included. Once the juice was gone, I turned to Demi.

"Why'd you do that?"

She wiped her mouth. "Well, you'll need to be as sober as possible for what's going to happen next."

"Which is?"

"Can't say now, I need to go back up. But you'll see!" she waved as she turned to head back to take Iggy's place onstage. As always, she left me utterly confused. But this time I couldn't dwell on it too much, because Iggy came up to me, sweating.

"Nice toast." I greeted him.

"Thanks. I'm not too good at making speeches."

"You were great, trust me." Somewhere, some little part of me actually meant that even though most of me wasn't paying attention.

"Hey, you wanna go for a walk?"

"Sure!" I took his hand, and felt it drip. "Why are your hands sweating?"

"It's the pressure. You get up on a stage with all those lights and all those people watching and listening, you kinda react." He didn't sound completely sure, but his mind didn't say anything otherwise, so I just nodded and followed him out. We winded through a few hallways until we got to the garden. Once the doors opened we both breathed deeply. Ahh, the fresh night air felt so good! Especially to a claustrophobic guy and a girl who had to smell all those ladies' overly-sprayed perfume and feel the heat of all those dancing people.

"Feels great, doesn't it?" I asked Iggy.

"You have no idea." He relaxed for a moment, and then tensed up for some reason.

"Why are you so tense?"

"No reason."

"It's something."

"Maybe. But let's not stand with the door open." He left the mansion into the periodically lit gardens and I followed, suspicious. When Iggy cares about flies getting in the house, pigs will fly and gas will be free. Something's up, I know it.

"So why are you so tense? And sweaty?"

"I already answered."

"But not truthfully."

"I know."

"So do you want to tell me what you're lying about?"

"Nope." Argh, his mind didn't have anything either! Time for last resorts.

"Please?" I gave him the angelic Bambi eyes. "For me?" Hehe, sucker, he was falling for it. Then he turned away at the last second.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I'm going to tell you."

"The whole truth?"

"The whole truth."

"Everything?"

"Yeah."

"YAY! Let's hear it."

"Uh, maybe you should be seated?"

"Are you stalling?"

"No, I just think you should have a seat before I tell you." He pointed to the concrete ledge next to the greenhouse. I shrugged.

"Fine." I took a seat, eager to hear what he had to say. He hesitantly sat next to me and took a deep breath.

"Okay, so you know I'm lying about why I'm all tense, right?" I nodded impatiently. "Well, I'm like that because I'm taking you on this walk to tell you what I was lying about earlier."

"You mean that one where you were somewhere other than the theater that night you talked to Fang about proposing to Max?"

"Yeah, that one."

"So what about it?"

"Well, I was lying to you because I have a surprise for you."

"A surprise? I like surprises." In Iggy's mind, he was slapping himself on the forehead because that way was a weird way to start it. But start what?

"Yeah. Fang says you'll like it, but I'm not so sure." He got even sweatier, and my curiosity increased.

"Like what?"

He sighed. "Okay, obviously I've never done this before, so here goes." He got up, rummaged around in his pockets a bit, clenched something in his fist, and got down on one knee in front of me. Wait, _one knee_? Could this mean-

"Rina, will you marry me?" Iggy finally unclenched his fist to reveal a gold ring, exactly my size. He smiled at me a bit, waiting for my response. But I didn't need to think anything over. It all became clear the moment I first saw him.

Acting on instinct only, I went down on my own knees and hugged him so hard he lost his breath for a moment. "Of course I'll marry you." I let go and kissed his cheek. He look stunned, feeling the spot, just like the last time I kissed him. Then he pulled me in and kissed me at full force. I loved it. And I couldn't believe he asked me to marry him! I never even saw it coming, never heard it in his mind…wait, that's what he wouldn't tell me! It was all so clear now. But screw logic, I'm getting married to the best man in the world!

We stayed like that for a while, until I realized that everyone would be wondering where we were. So we stood up, Iggy's hand on my waist, and walked up the hill with no talking at all. Nothing needed to be said. When we opened up the grand doors, everyone was still there and dancing to another rock song, Sk8er Boi. Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel looked tired, but they were pigging out on wedding cake. Angel and Nudge were playing with the toy bride and groom that used to be on the top of the cake (and the dolls had wings glued to their backs!), but set them down when they saw us.

"Hey guys! Where were you? You were out there for like twenty minutes, you missed Max and Fang cutting the wedding cake. Plus they did three songs, but they were all slow dancing, so we just sat through it and watched Max and Fang-" Nudge would have rambled on, but Angel gasped when she read our minds.

"You DID?! And you said yes? YAY! Can I be the flower girl again? And if you were Max's maid of honor will Max be your maid of honor? When's the wedding? Can we help again? Will you have the same band play?"

"Angel!" Iggy and I both said at the same time. Jeez, the mind reading has her turning into Nudge!

"Hey guys, what's up?" Max said as she came off the dance floor with Fang by her side. We would have explained but Angel couldn't wait.

"Iggy proposed to Rina and Rina said yes!" Max and Fang looked at each other, then burst into grins (well, not so much Fang).

"I told you she'd say yes." Fang prompted Iggy.

"And I told you she'd say yes." Iggy nodded at Max.

"So when's the wedding?" Max asked me.

"No clue. We'll figure it out later." I responded while I watched Nudge give Angel five dollars (apparently they had a bet on when Iggy would propose to me, and Angel won). Everyone was talking about our engagement while the band played. Demi winked when she saw me. So she knew? For once everyone knew something I didn't. Scary.

But what was scarier was when a white dove flew in through a closed window, over the crowd, and in front of me. Everyone, and I mean everyone, looked at me confused. No one but I knew what a white dove meant. I took the letter tied to its leg, and it through once again through the closed window and out of sight. With trembling hands, I broke the wax seal with the "G" stamped on it. The flock's eyes were still glued on me, though the band started again and everyone continued as if nothing had happened.

"Rina?" Gazzy asked.

"Huh?"

"What's that?"

"A letter from the genie government."

"Why would they write to you? You're free." Iggy asked.

"Just because I'm free doesn't mean they can't contact me." I responded, then started reading. My eyes widened with every sentence. No, no, it couldn't be, I added restrictions! Why would this happen? _How_ could it happen?

"Rina?" I looked up to see Iggy looking at me with worry. In his eyes I could see my reflection, how freaked out I really looked. "What did they say?"

I gulped. "It says Ari 2 was wished free. And he's looking for me."

* * *

**Okay everyone, it's six in the morning right now, therefore I'm sleepy and will make mistakes. I can't even check it right now, I need to catch a bus in three minutes. But please review and make my day! **


	9. Meet the Parents

**Wow, I got reviews! Man, you guys are the greatest, I love those reviews so much! I'll stop now. Oh, what the heck, here's to maxride08, ghj1, max ride girl, Bubble Blower, Maximum Ride all the way, xxApocalypexx, IssytheWriter, fang-is-yummy, and Evil Angel of DOOM (did you catch Iggy yet?), you all reviewed the last chapter! I don't know how to thank you, so just….thanks!**

**Well, now that I've gotten your attention (or made you run away from the computer screaming…), let's review. Last chapter (the longest chapter of this story, by the way!), Fang and Max got married (about time, huh?), Iggy proposed to Rina, Ari 2 was wished free and is looking for Rina, and Angel won another bet against Nudge. Great time to start another chapter, huh? Well, since it's the weekend, let's get started!**

**Disclaimer: hyper, crazy, pointless, a plot in there somewhere, yup, I wrote it! However, Maximum Ride can't be described like that, therefore I don't own it. Make sense? I get stuff, it's just stuff that doesn't make sense to anybody else (your pick of clone to whoever tells me who said that!). On with chapter thingie!**

**Chapter 9: Meet the Parents (yeah, pathetic title, but I couldn't think of anything else!)**

**POV Iggy**

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"How come?"

"Why not?"

"Because I hate them, that's why."

"Iggy, they meant well. That was their way of showing they cared about what happened to you. Just one little visit, that's all I'm asking."

"Rina, they were going to make me a media star! I don't want to be interviewed and photographed and put in a zoo. They completely blew it."

"But this time you know you're going to come back here! And I'll be with you the whole time, I promise."

"But I'm not James, and as far as I'm concerned they're not my parents. I don't need parents, I'm a legal adult!"

"Yeah, so? You may as well go see them, they're worried sick about you."

"Why would they be? I'm just money to them."

"You're also their only son, and they like you, believe it or not."

"Yeah, and what about your parents? I don't think most parents let you wander around the universe grating wishes and settling down without any notice."

"They don't mind! They know I can take care of myself, I've got powers and training, and I know what I'm doing!"

"And so do I, which is why I'm not going to see my parents! I'd rather just see yours to let them know you're okay."

"And I'd rather see yours so they know if you're alive or not! Look, they actually care about you, even if you don't care about them, and a visit would be good for them. Just having them know you're okay would make them see that you don't need them, and you never have! Believe me, just one little visit and you'll never have to see them again. Unless you want to, of course."

I sighed. She had a huge point. For those of you now joining us and those of you that haven't figured it out yet, Rina and I were in the bedroom discussing whether or not to see our parents. We both agreed that we should see at least one of them because it would be best for us to be on the move and away from Ari 2 until we get more info on him. In the meantime we were just going to lie low, have a wedding, and do whatever we want to after that. Max suggested seeing our parents today, so now we were arguing over who to see. I didn't want to see my parents for obvious reasons, but I didn't see why Rina didn't want to see hers.

"You promise they'll understand?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

"Don't hope to die, Rina, it's a very bad thing to wish for death." She cracked a grin.

"So you'll see your parents?"

"Yeah, but on two conditions."

"And they would be?"

"Condition number one: you come with me and make this a little easier."

She nodded. "I was waiting for you to ask that."

"And condition number two: I get to meet your family."

"No!"

"Why not?"

"They're really weird. You shouldn't have to meet them, they'd creep you out."

"I'm not easily scared."

"I know. But still, my parents would probably smother you, my brother would probably ignore you completely, and my sister would most likely annoy you until you turn blue."

"That doesn't sound too bad. If you're meeting my parents, I'm meeting yours."

"But why do you have to meet everyone? Can we just drop in, say hi, and go to your place?"

"Yeah, because if they're anything like you they'll let us go without a second thought. If we get to do that with your parents, then why can't we do it for mine?"

"Because they want to know about you."

"And yours don't? I don't think your parents are going to ignore the winged blonde guy next to you the entire time you're visiting."

She put her head in her hand, thinking. "Can we compromise?"

"Depends. What is it?"

"We go to your place first, chat with your parents for an hour or two, tell them about us, and leave. We go to my place, chat with mine for an hour or two, say hi to my brother and sister, and get out of there as fast as we possibly can. Sound good?"

I thought it over. Same amount of time at each place, but we see my folks first. "Why do we have to see my parents first?"

"Would it make it any fairer if we stayed at my place for dinner?"

"Fine then, it's a deal."

"Okay, now to meet your parents! Stand up, please?" I obeyed and shuffled over the side of the bed after her. She stood perfectly still next to me, and then we were on a familiar street. The last time I came here I was blind, which means I haven't been there in a long time! The house we were standing in front of looked decent, tidy, but a nice enough place. "That's your house." Rina pointed to the house we were standing in front of. "You remember the place well enough?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, let's go then."

"Yeah. Sure. Go." I just couldn't face that Rina talked me into this.

"Shall I rephrase? Let us both go."

"Nah, you go ahead. I'll wait for you."

"How touching. Let's go." She had to drag me up to the door and press my finger against the doorbell. "Now don't forget to act human." she whispered from behind me just before the door opened and a woman peeked out. Holy crap, she did look like me. Same blonde hair, same eyes, and roughly the same figure. I was just a lot taller than her, and a little leaner. She looked me up and down, confusion on her face, which slowly changed to recognition.

"James?" she whispered.

"Uh, it's Iggy, remember?"

"Iggy! It's you! You came back! I still kept your room just the way you left it and-wait, why are you looking at me?" she suddenly saw how I was looking exactly into her eyes instead of a little above her head like last time.

"I'll explain later."

"Well why not now? We're not doing anything in particular at the moment." She held the door open for me. I paused.

"I'll come in if she can come in too." I stepped aside to reveal Rina, who smiled sheepishly at my mom. Mom looked surprised, but recovered nicely.

"Sure, you can both come. But just come in!" she ushered us both in without another word and called into the sitting room. "Tom! James came back! And he has a friend with him!" (**A/N the dad's name really is Tom, I checked!**) She crossed the hall in two steps to go get my dad, which left me a split second to look around, refresh my memory, and ask Rina something.

"Are you sure about this?" I muttered.

"Positive." She whispered as my mom came back in the hall, dragging my dad behind her. Dad stared at me blankly for a moment, and I stared back as we both took each other in. He was a little shorter than me, with the same hair and eyes as me and mom. But his skin was paler, probably the same tone as mine. The resemblance was scary.

"James!" Dad finally said, after countless minutes of awkward staring.

"Iggy, remember?" Jeez, my name isn't James. It never was.

"Yes, right, Iggy. Sorry, but where were you all these years? Are you still blind? And who's this?" he pointed at Rina.

"Actually, I think we'd all like to hear Iggy explain. Where were we all these years?" Rina looked at me innocently as mom and dad's eyes widened at the word "we". Oh, was she going to get it later!

"Let's sit down or something first. It's a long story." Mom and dad took the hint and went to the sitting room, me and Rina following. Dad took the armchair, mom took the loveseat, and Rina and I sat next to each other on the couch across from them. "And just so we're clear, mom, dad, this is Rina. Rina, you know mom and dad." Rina, mom, and dad all nodded to each other, ready for me to continue. "Okay, so when I ran away four years ago, I went back to my friends."

"Ah, yes, what happened to them? And where's that nice girl that first introduced us?" mom asked. Rina and I exchanged looks and tried not to crack up. That "nice girl" is married to Charlie Denton's son and living in a mansion with us, thank you very much! I proceeded with the rest of the story, including how Rina used to be a genie, how she gave me my vision back, and how we saved the world. The only things I left out were the more romantic parts, Rina being my girlfriend and fiancé, and the servants/band.

"And then a few days ago, we all went to Max and Fang's wedding. It was huge, Fang's dad invited so many people. I think he thought it was a social gathering or something. But it was kinda nice over there, anyways. Then this morning Rina talked to me, said I should visit you guys because you were pretty worried about me, and I asked her to come because you should probably know who she is. And that's pretty much what happened." Mom and dad pretty much stared at me blankly for five minutes.

"That all happened?" mom finally asked. I can't blame her for not believing me, I mean, she probably never had that much happen in her life.

"Yeah, all that happened." I nodded.

"Well, except one thing he didn't mention." Rina corrected.

"What's that?" dad asked.

"Iggy?" she smirked at me. "_You're enjoying this, aren't you?_"

"_Oh yeah._"

"_You know you're going to be the one to tell your parents, right?_"

"_Yep. I just want to see you say it._"

"_Fine, then._" "Okay, then, I'll tell you."

"Yes?"

"The thing I left out is also the reason I brought Rina here to meet you."

"And what's that reason?"

I looked to Rina. "_Do I have to_?"

"_Yeah, you have to. They need to know!_"

"I brought Rina here because we thought you should meet your future daughter-in-law."

"Wait, you mean-" mom couldn't believe it, and dad was sitting still.

"Yeah, we're engaged." This was greeted with a very, _very_ long pause. According to Rina, mom couldn't believe that her little James was already growing up and getting married, and dad just couldn't believe that the nice girl next to me was my fiancé. Rina and I sat there waiting for an eternity, patiently awaiting their response. Kinda awkward.

"So you two are getting married?" mom was the first to ask.

"Yeah, in about a week." Rina responded for me, for once. She took my hand and I smiled at her, trying to make it look official for my parents. Because we didn't look like the most romantic couple to people who didn't know us well.

"A _week_?" dad lost it. "When did you ask her?"

"Fang and Max's wedding. It's a lot harder than it looks, too." I responded instantly.

"When were you a couple?"

"About our second day in Salt Lake City."

"So was it love at first sight?" mom wanted to know. I wasn't sure if I should answer that, but I did anyways.

"Yeah, pretty much. She gave me my vision back, I looked at her, etc." Let's just leave it at there, I'm still not sure I should have told them.

"And Rina," mom turned to look at her, still taking in that she was going to have a daughter. "Will we be expecting grandchildren?" Oh jeez. We both turned a little red, and Rina tensened just a bit. Nothing they'd notice in her voice, though.

"Actually, we don't know." She answered coolly. "We'll just have a wedding and see what happens from there. And we should probably get going, we need to see my parents soon, and they hate it when we're late." Taking the hint, Rina and I stood up. Mom and dad looked pretty disappointed that we had to leave so soon, but they followed us to the door.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths." Rina shook hands with my dad, and she would have done the same to mom if mom hadn't pulled her into a hug first. Mom hugged me too, and dad shook hands with me while whispering something about "congrats." I just smiled at them, eager to get out of there as quickly as possible. Once the goodbyes were done, we went outside while mom and dad watched.

"_Wanna give 'em a show as we leave?_"

"_Sure, but I didn't wear the shirt with the back holes._"

"_Not a problem._" Rina ripped my shirt with her telepathy, and I stretched my winds, eager to get flying. She revealed her flawless white wings and mom and dad gaped at them. Ignoring them, we ran down the street and took off, still grinning down at them. We flapped like crazy, trying to get away from their house and their eyes. At least they didn't have raptor vision. Once I couldn't see them any more, I turned to Rina.

"We are _not_ doing that again."

"I know, I know. Maybe you were a little right about them. But now they're not going to bug you anymore. Although it wouldn't hurt to let them come to the wedding. That would kinda enforce the point."

"Sure, anything to keep them away. Why did I have to tell them?"

"They're your parents, and if I told them they'd think I was lying."

"Can we go to your place now? I want my money's worth."

"Fine, fine, we can go. But we'll never be able to fly there."

"That's not a problem."

"It'll be a completely different thing from your parents' place."

"Good."

"My family is really weird."

"We had a deal, now let's go!"

She groaned. "Are you sure you want to meet them?"

"You met mine. Now I get to see just how weird you say your family is."

She sighed. "We did have a deal." She opened a portal about twenty feet in front of us. "Fly in there, but don't stop once you get through, okay?"

"Kay." She dived into the portal, me at her heels. When I looked in front of me I almost forgot to flap. Yeah, it was a three-story house, painted cheerfully, with little window boxes with flowers. It looked like it could be a human house except for one key thing. It was floating. Looking down I couldn't even see the ground, it was covered by clouds.

"So you grew up in a floating house above the clouds?" I asked Rina.

"Yep. You should see the school."

"Shall we?" I pointed to the house.

"You first."

"They know you."

"They need to know you."

"It's your house."

"Fine." She flew up to the house and landed on the small patio outside the front door. I followed, curious. Rina pressed a button, and a siren sounded, complete with flashing lights. It was like a mixture of a party and a fire drill. I'd hate to see their burglar alarm.

"Why settle for a regular doorbell?" Rina grinned at me when she saw my confused face. I grinned, then stopped the second before the door opened. Staring up at us was a small girl, looking about twelve, with a petite figure, black hair, and hazel eyes. She cocked her head when she saw us, then turned around and yelled "Mom! Dad! Rina's back, and she's got a boy with her!"

"Gina! Jeez, way to blow our cover." Rina walked in without an invitation and gestured for me to follow. "Oh, and by the way, Gina, this is Iggy, Iggy, this is Gina, my little sister."

"Hey. Are you human?" Gina greeted me.

"Hi. Yeah, I'm human for the most part. And you're a genie?"

"In training. What do you mean 'for the most part'?"

"I'm ninety eight percent human, two percent bird."

"Cool." She nodded. I wouldn't call her weird. She just probably heard of creepier stuff than hybrids. Looking around, I could hardly believe a family of genies lived here. Everything looked a little messy, but comfy. There were pictures of people, probably relatives, on the walls, and the floor was clean, but periodically covered with stray clothes, books, pillows, blankets, and other things. It still looked like someone was trying to keep the place clean, and it would be a nice place to live.

"I'm glad you like it." Rina said, reading my thoughts again. "I do too."

"Rina!" came a cry from behind the stairway. I looked to see a short, brown haired woman with hazel eyes racing to hug Rina. She looked nice, like a person who cared about their children very much. She was probably the person who kept this place clean, considering how her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she smelled like bleach. "We missed you so much, you came back! How is everything? Are you alright?"

"Hi mom." Rina patted her awkwardly on the back, smiling. "I missed you too. I'm fine. How's stuff over here?"

"Oh, you know, same as always. Matt got into a human college, some place called Harvard, just so he can grant the wishes of college students easier. The studies are apparently all too easy for him, even though he doesn't use speed or the extra brain power, they're thinking of moving him up a grade."

"And I got my learner's permit for transportation!" Gina said from behind them.

"Hey, great job kiddo!" Rina stretched and ruffled her hair from ten feet away. "Next thing I know you'll be graduating."

"Who's this?" Rina's mom pulled away and looked me up and down. "Rina, who's this?"

"This, mom, is Iggy, the guy who set me free. Iggy, meet mom." I would have waved or something if Rina's mom didn't give me a bear hug that knocked my breath away.

"Oh it's so nice of you to free Rina, she was always dreaming of somebody freeing her and right in her toughest moment you made her so happy! You're always welcome here as a personal family friend, oh thank you for wishing Rina free!" Rina's mom could have been an older Nudge for all I knew, but it was nice all the same, and I blushed. See, this is something my mom would never do, and it felt pretty good.

"Let go, Stella, you're going to turn him purple." Looking up I saw a man following after Rina's mom. He had black hair, and Rina's blue eyes, which were currently looking me over. "Who's this?"

"Frank, this is Iggy. He wished Rina free. Iggy, this is Rina's dad." Rina's mom introduced us. I nodded, and he grinned.

"So you're the boy who set Rina free? Yes, I thought you'd come here soon. But for what reason?"

"_Dad specializes in telling the future. It's his superpower._" Rina sent to my mind, then answered her dad. "We were just about to tell you. Mind if we stay over a bit and give you the full story?"

"Oh, sure, stay as long as you like. Would you like to stay for dinner? It'll be out in twenty minutes." Rina's mom asked.

"Sure." I responded for the both of us. Gina and Rina's mom and dad left to do various activities, apparently trusting Rina enough to do whatever with me.

"So now what?" I asked Rina.

"What do you want to do?" she asked back.

"I dunno. What do you have here?"

"I could show you the house."

"Okay."

"Fine then. Right now you're in the sitting room. We don't use it much, but it always looks impressive." She took me through her whole house, starting with the first floor and working our way up the stairs. My favorite part was the third floor. We had just finished climbing the last set of stairs, and I only saw a small hallway with three doors, one on the left, one on the right, and one at the end.

"Okay, the door at the end is the bathroom. The one on the right is the game room." She opened the door to reveal a humongous room. There was a widescreen T.V in one corner with a Playstation 3, two beanbag chairs, and a couch. The wall on the right of it had shelves of toys, movies, video games, and blankets, anything to keep a kid entertained. To the left was a bookshelf, a soft rug, an air hockey table, and some more beanbag chairs. The floor was littered with various items, including a skateboard with no wheels and assorted Barbie clothes. I drew in a breath.

"Nice place."

"Yeah, it's a good place to hang out. Plus it's right across from my room, so I don't have to go very far if I forgot a book or something."

"Your room?"

"Yeah, wanna see it?" she held open the door for me. I went through and turned the knob on the door in front of me. The door swung open to admit me, and I saw a room slightly smaller than the game room. It was painted a light blue, except for the wall in front of me, which was a huge window that looked out into the sunset. On the right wall was a queen-sized bed, a nightstand, and a dresser with more books piled on top of it. The left wall had an armchair, a closet, and a desk with a laptop on it. I could see living in this room.

"Yeah, I think it's pretty cool too. Especially the one-way window." Rina using her mind-reading made me remember what she said earlier.

"Hey Rina?"

"Yeah?" she responded as she closed the door and sat on her bed.

"Remember when you said your dad's superpower was telling the future? What was that about?"

"Oh yeah, I knew I should probably explain that." She patted the bed, inviting me to sit down, and proceeded. "Well, every genie has what we call powers and superpowers. Powers are the abilities we have, the ones that are different from your human abilities. You know, like stretching, flying, teleporting, and all that. Superpowers are the powers that we're better at using. They're the ones we use the most, the ones that are most developed. It's like our signature power. Dad tells the future all the time, and he's never been wrong, so that's his superpower."

"I see. Do you all have them?"

"Yeah. They're kinda associated with our names, in the case of my family. For example, dad's name is Frank, and he can tell fortunes, so we call him Fortune Frank. And Stella is my mom's name, and she's really good at flying, so she was named Stella because she could probably touch a star, or stella, in Italian."

"What about you and your brother and sister?"

"Gina's a levitator, we call her Gravity sometimes because that's the one thing that never gets in her way. Matt got super speed. They call him Fast Matt, which isn't much of a nickname. I call him Splat because when he first discovered his power he ran into the wall." She took a moment to laugh about it. "He never forgave me for it, even though that was years and years ago."

"And you?"

"Mind reading. They call me Rina-Reader, or just Reader. Matt had to come up with an evil nickname for me, but he couldn't, which is good, considering he's pretty smart."

"Not a bad superpower to have."

"Not really, but on the other hand I knew what everyone in school thought of me. Some people liked me but others thought I was stuck up because the popular kids always asked me to sit by them. But they only asked me because I could give them gossip." She shook her head. "Airheads. Their powers were all physical, they had no advanced mental abilities."

"Yeah, I think I remember a few girls in high school like that. But why did they ignore you? You could have been really popular."

"They didn't know about mind reading. And I don't want to be popular. I'd rather be with you than them." She smiled at me, and I grinned back. Unfortunately Rina's mom chose that time to yell "Dinner!" up the stairs.

"We should probably get going then." I said.

"Yeah. I hope you like tacos, because mom's going to keep trying to make you eat more."

"I'll put up with it. And remember, you're telling them."

"Oh yeah." She made a face. We were already halfway down the stairs, so she made it a quick face. "Do I have to?"

"I told mine, now you tell yours."

"What if I made another deal with you? So then I wouldn't have to tell them?"

"You really don't want to do this? C'mon, this is a milestone in your life, you should be the one to tell them the big news, not some guy they just met twenty minutes ago."

"Some guy who's going to have a very big hand in this news!"

"Just tell them. I'll help you if you get stuck, I promise." By this time we were at the foot of the stairs, about to enter the dinning room.

"Fine." Rina muttered, then brightened up and walked in. "Taco night? Excellent!"

"Well, we were just going to have pizza, but tonight's a special occasion." Rina's mom beamed. Crap, they knew already?

"_No, I blocked their minds, they don't know anything._"

"_Good._"

"Matt, hurry up! You're going to miss dinner!" Rina's mom shouted up the stairs. I heard a faint "I'm coming, I'm coming" and the next thing I knew a boy about my height was standing in front of me and Rina. He paused for a minute, surveying us with his blue eyes and looking through his shaggy black hair. Then he spoke.

"Hey Rina."

"Hey Matt. How's college?"

"Too easy. And those college boys are all show-offs. Haven't made friends yet, but I've got my own."

"Yeah, it's hard to relate with most humans."

"You brought one over for dinner." He eyed me, suspicious.

"Yeah, this is Iggy. Iggy, Matt."

"And he wished Rina free." Gina peeked from behind us to tell Matt.

"Nice." Matt said, not seeming to care. Then he noticed the tacos, I blinked, and he was in his seat, his tortilla halfway filled. Rina and I took our seats across from Gina and Matt, and everyone dug in. Rina's mom cooked really well, even better than the cooks at the mansion! I could have enjoyed it more if she didn't load my plate with more food, however.

"So Rina," Rina's dad said after swallowing a mouthful of beans. "Why are you blocking me from seeing why you're here?"

"Oh, yeah, that. I thought I should tell you personally. I'd rather you didn't guess it and get it all wrong."

"So are you going to tell us why you introduced us to Iggy?" Rina's mom beamed at me again before scooping more rice onto my overly-full tortilla. Apparently Rina wasn't kidding when she said freeing a genie was a big deal.

"Yeah, why'd you drag a human over here?" Matt asked with his mouth full.

"He's a guy! He's human! Rina always had a weak spot for human boys, remember?" Gina said.

"Oh yeah, but she wasn't allowed to visit Earth until tenth grade, and by then she had Bruce. What happened to him anyways? I kinda liked him." Matt sounded interested for once.

"Shut up, he came onto me!" Rina snapped. "I never liked him anyways. He's probably taking care of some football professional that used to suck before he got a genie."

"Who's Bruce?" I asked. Matt smirked.

"Old boyfriend of Rina's." he explained. "They used to be all serious, then she broke up with him."

"You never told me you had a boyfriend before." I turned to Rina. She grinned apologetically.

"Not important. He was horrible." "_Not like you at all._" She added, not willing to say it in front of her parents.

"Yeah, but you didn't seem to think human boys were horrible." Matt pressed on. "I think I remember this one boy you were spying on a few years ago. Tall, blonde, blue eyes, kinda like him," he pointed at me "but he was blind, wasn't he? And he had wings."

"Yeah, who was that kid? And wasn't he like ten or something? You took pity on the kid and his friends, and then you helped that one guy set them free? And you made them that house to live in?" Gina supplied.

"I remember you left your light on one night, and I came to check on you and you were gone!" Rina's mom smiled at the memory. "And I tracked you and found you invisible in that boy's room. Honestly, the way you looked at him!" She shook her head. Rina turned a bright red as I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, and that one time I saw you dreaming about talking to him!" Matt seemed to be getting happier by the minute as he remembered. "And then you saw him talking to that one girl, Tessa or whatever, and you just about lost it." Things just kept getting more confusing. Rina looked after a ten-year-old blind kid? Wait a sec, that blind kid would have to grow up if this happened a few years ago. And Rina might want to meet that blind kid, maybe help him out a bit….

"Rina?" I asked, finally.

"Hm?"

"Who was that blind kid?" I just had to make sure.

"You." Everyone was surprised by that statement. Rina was spying on me when I was a kid?

"You're the blind kid?" Matt asked.

"He does have wings." Gina pointed out. "He's two percent bird."

"But he isn't blind!" Rina's mom said.

"'He' used to be blind, before Rina came along and fixed it." I corrected.

"So tell us, Rina, because we're dying to know." Rina's dad asked. "Why is a formerly blind boy who wished you free sitting here with us as if he's known genies his whole life?"

"Uh…you really wanna know?" Rina was feeling awkward, I could tell.

"Yeah, duh!" Gina said.

Rina sighed. "Fine. When Iggy and this friend of his, Gazzy, blew up a tree using parts from the group's iPod, Max, the leader, had to take everyone and get a new one, which was also the one I was currently living in." Rina explained everything to them, except for the romance between us, being my girlfriend/fiancé, and the servants. I gotta admit, besides those she didn't miss a detail. Her family acted as a captive audience the whole time, apparently fascinated in the story of our lives.

"So when we went to Max and Fang's wedding, I kinda tripped down the aisle, but it was nice enough. It was also huge, the flock was getting claustrophobia before I calmed them down. And this morning Max suggested we see our parents, so Iggy and I made a deal that we would see you guys if we saw his parents first. And that's pretty much what happened."

"Wow. That's a lot of stuff!" Gina exclaimed.

"Charlie Denton, huh? Nice place, then?" Rina's dad asked us.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. We even have our own servants. I got one because I didn't know the place, but Rina didn't because she knew the mansion by heart before we even went there." I responded.

"Yeah, and there's one more detail." Rina seemed reluctant to have to mention it, but I wasn't helping things along, so she had to be the one to tell them.

"Oh really? What's that?" Rina's mom leaned forward, eager to hear it.

"Well, there's a reason I brought Iggy here to meet you…"

"And the reason is…?" Gina asked.

"Well, the reason is….are you sure you don't want to help me with this?" Forgetting the fact that she could read minds better than anyone here, she just asked me out loud. I shrugged.

"Your family, your show."

"Fine. Everyone, get a good look at my fiancé."

"……Wait, you're……"

"Yes mom, we're getting married." Hey, she did it better than me. She even put enthusiasm in her voice towards the end. I sent her a smile in congratulations for breaking the news so well, and she sent a relieved grin back. Her family, on the other hand, sat dumbstruck, letting it all sink in. Matt recovered first.

"_This_ is my brother-in-law?"

"Yeah."

"Can I be the flower girl?" Gina asked innocently.

"Sorry kiddo, that's reserved for Angel."

"Aww, c'mon, please Rina? Remember, you promised a few years ago that if you ever got married I could be the flower girl!"

"I did not!"

"Please, it would be so cool if I could be the flower girl! I wouldn't trip, I promise! I'll be good."

"Angelina…"

"Sabrina…" Next thing I knew Rina and Gina were having a staring contest to settle their argument. Rina was glaring, and Gina was just staring innocently into Rina's eyes. Then suddenly, Rina collapsed and growled. Gina cheered.

"YAY! I'm the flower girl!"

"When's the wedding?" Rina's mom asked.

"We don't know for sure, but maybe a week from now. My parents will be there too." I explained as Rina recovered from the staring contest.

"Ah, good, then we can meet them!" Rina's mom seemed content with the idea of Rina marrying some kid she was spying on when he was ten. Rina's dad, on the other hand, was staring off into space, a look of slight fear on his face.

"_Hey Rina?_"

"_Yeah?_"

"_What's up with your dad?_"

"_What? Oh, wait, dad! He's having a vision. This one must be a bad one._" We waited Rina's dad out until he blinked and stared at us.

"You two," he pointed at me and Rina. "Need to go. Now." Rina gasped next to me, and I tried to understand why he just said that.

"Why do we need to go?" I asked the room.

"There are man-like wolves with wings flying this way. They're brainless, but they're being lead by one who looks pretty smart. He's going to tear this place apart and capture Rina, and possibly Iggy." Rina's dad explained. Rina and I exchanged frightened looks.

"Ari." We said at the same time.

**Okay, now that I have given you the longest chapter I have ever written EVER (more than 6,000 words! The longest in OGR was like 5,600 words), what did you think? Meeting their parents would have been pointless, and I will admit that Iggy actually seeing his parents is kinda surreal, but I decided to add a siege at the last minute! Hey, why not? Makes things interesting.**

**But what did you think? You know I like to know!**


	10. Siege

**Okay guys, I just now submitted chapter 9, so I can't thank everyone who reviewed (Rina could tell me who is going to, but she's gotta be in the story). Well, I thank everyone who did or is going to, you all get a huge plate of Dr. Martinez's chocolate chip cookies!**

**Okay, so does Ari 2 freak you out yet? He's kinda weird in my opinion, and he's all evil, unlike his original. Plus that guy can really hold a grudge! So anyways, did anyone notice that in Free Rina and OGR, the longest chapters ever were both chapter 9? Creepy, huh? So let's get the siege down now that I've done a bit of warm-up rambling!**

**Disclaimer: Look at the last disclaimer I did, I like how I phrased that one. It's not mine if it's well thought out and to the point and not random! And now for the chapter! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 10: Siege**

**POV Iggy (I really really like doing his POV!)**

Everyone looked at us confused.

"Who's Ari?" Rina's mom wanted to know.

"When we saved the world Ari 2 captured me and Iggy. Threatened Iggy's life unless I became his genie. Then we got smart and Iggy wished me free so then I wouldn't be anyone's genie and I could kick Ari's butt. I made him a genie, and he recently got wished free. He's looking for me and Iggy as revenge for ruining his takeover." Rina quickly explained.

"And the wolves with wings?" Gina asked.

"Flyboys. Ari 2 probably found a few of them to use. Half wolf, half bird, no brains, all robot, and willing to do Ari 2's bidding." I informed them hastily.

"And with Ari 2's powers they could do some serious damage." Rina added. Everyone exchanged grimaces.

"Okay, everyone." Rina's mom became a general all of a sudden. I couldn't help but think that she lead some genie war or something. "Now that we know, we need to make sure Iggy and Rina are safe. Ari 2 will probably send a party to find Rina or Iggy if we send them away, but if we leave a fake trail that makes them think they're here, Iggy and Rina will have some time to run. Right?" She looked to Rina's dad. He nodded.

"If we split them up and send them to different places, he'll have to split more men up to search for them. Then we can lead a trail back here where we can take them out while Iggy and Rina are safe." Rina's mom was confusing me. Why were they so intent on leading the flyboys here?

"Split up?" Rina exclaimed. "I'm not leaving. It's me he wants, I shouldn't have to leave Iggy just because of that!"

"But if you leave with Iggy he'll know where to find you because apparently you never go without him. If you split up he'll have to guess where you both are."

"He wants you both." Rina's dad added. "That way if he doesn't harm one of you he'll at least have the other."

"Right. So you should split up so he doesn't get you at the same time. Rina, Gina, you two hide somewhere, Matt, take Iggy. Make sure you're as far away as possible, and don't contact each other unless you absolutely have to. Your father and I will stay here and fight the flyboys." Rina's mom finished, already liking the idea of this fight.

"Can't we leave some clones or something?" Matt asked.

"We won't get hurt." Rina's dad guaranteed.

"Can I get the flock to come fight?" Rina asked.

"Yeah, they could really help, they've fought flyboys before. It's like a sport to them." I included for them to consider. They thought it over.

"Fine, they can fight, if you're sure they won't get hurt." Rina's dad said.

"They won't. Unless the flyboys have powers?" Rina inquired.

"No, Ari 2's saving that as a last resort. He wants to have all the power, so he only cloned the flyboys to make an army. He thinks he needs to save his power until he meets you, so he's not going to make any more unless he's desperate."

"Good. Then they can fight with us." I said.

"With us?" Rina's mom asked. "Didn't you here me? You're leaving!"

"No, I'd never miss a chance to kill some flyboy. I'm staying, and so is Rina."

"Yeah, I don't want to miss a fight!" Rina agreed.

"No, you're not! We're going to hold them off so you have time to split up and run for it! They want both of you, and you're going to leave here and leave a trail leading them here so we can kill the reinforcements so they don't harm you!" Why would Rina's mom care about me? This is her daughter we're talking about! Everything was going so fast, spinning around before my eyes.

"They'll be here in five minutes. Get started." Rina's dad warned.

"Rina, get the flock over here. Then go upstairs, switch clothes with Gina, and both of you get out of here in the quickest way you can. Matt, Iggy, you two switch clothes and bodies and leave too. Stay away from each other until we say so. NOW!" Rina's mom's final orders made us jump, then obey. Matt hesitated, then grabbed me and raced me up the stairs with his speed. I got one last look at Rina as she made a portal to the mansion while waving at me. Then I was in Matt's room, which happened to be dark except for the lights the stereo system made. Matt was already tossing me his shirt and ripping off my own for me.

"Why do we have to switch-" Matt almost pulled my head off along with my shirt, and made me stop talking.

"These guys are wolves, so they kinda depend on your scent to find you. If we switch clothes we might be able to fool them into thinking you're still here and I was the one who left. If not they'll at least have a hard time tracking you. And the bodies just confuse them more. They won't know who to capture if they manage to track us. Basically the bodies protect you and the clothes protect me. You humans are so slow!" he complained as he finished undressing me and putting on my clothes. Once Matt switched our bodies and I finished dressing (correction: Matt dressed me because apparently I was slow), he grabbed my wrist, making sure I didn't stray away when we disappeared.

"Wait, aren't we supposed to say goodbye or something?" I know I sounded like an idiot, but maybe Rina's mom wanted to check on us or give some last instructions. And in any case I wanted to at least kiss Rina goodbye.

"The sooner we leave the better." Matt muttered back, then disappeared, me along with him. We ended up in a suite in a hotel with a view of the Eiffel Tower. We must be in Paris.

"Yeah, we're in Paris. Here's some history for you. That's the bed where my sister decided to go save you from that science lab." He pointed to the bed in the next room. This room had a couch, a T.V, and a mini kitchen in the corner next to the window with the Eiffel Tower. Nice place. But how long would I be here?

"Why France?" I asked as I sat on the couch.

"Because why would you go to France? You'd probably go back to the Denton place. Plus these French guys have American cable and edible food." He responded as he rummaged through the mini-fridge, looking to finish his disrupted dinner. Pulling out some Hot Pockets from the microwave, he offered me some.

"I eat a lot, so it would be best you acted like me." He held me one plate, already munching on one himself. I was mesmerized to watch my face in front of me, chewing with my mouth open.

"I'll take my chances." Matt shrugged, then plopped next to me on the couch, stole the remote, and turned on the T.V. It went like that for hours, Matt watching T.V and eating whatever was in the kitchen, and me pretending to watch T.V and wonder. Why do I have to sit here in France while the rest of the flock is busy killing erasers? And why couldn't Rina be here to make me feel a little better? I almost choked. Rina. Was she okay? Did she have to switch bodies too? Where was she? When could we speak again? Just the thought of staying here for more than two hours made me claustrophobic again.

"Worry doesn't look good on my face, you know." I turned to see my body, laid back and looking completely at ease. I don't think I ever looked as relaxed as that in my life. "Dude, I don't know how this happened, I mean, your stomach still isn't full!" Oh. That would explain why he was eating so much.

"My body goes through food faster than most humans. I need more calories." I answered, still off in my thoughts. I couldn't believe this was happening. Why would Ari 2 want this revenge? Was everyone okay? And why did Ari 2 want me too? Everyone was fighting this to protect me and Rina. I was here in Matt's body because this way I would be protected. But why? Rina I could understand, I mean, she made Ari 2 a genie and destroyed his plans. But I still don't know why I'm so important. Why was everyone fighting to protect me as well? I'm not worth it.

"You're wrong."

"Huh?" I swiveled around. Did Matt just say what I thought he said?

"You're wrong. You're worth it."

"No I'm not." I turned away.

"Yes you are."

"I'm not."

"Give me one good reason why you're not worth it."

"I can't help anyone."

"Yes you can."

"No, I can't. I don't have powers, all I can do is kick and punch people."

"You're helping us just by existing."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I don't believe you."

"You should. You're helping us."

"How?"

"Rina makes everyone happy when she's happy. And you make her happy, so she makes us happy."

"So?"

"So before you she was miserable. Even when she had friends and boyfriends and nothing wrong she still wasn't truly happy, and we could see it in her eyes. But then she heard about some blind kid with wings who she saw and fell in love with. Even when you didn't know she existed you made her truly happy. You really think we want to look her in the eyes again if something should happen to you?"

I stared at Matt and he stared back. "So you're protecting me because Rina will be really upset if something happens to me?"

"Yeah."

"I dunno, you don't seem to like me too much." I leaned back and pretended to watch T.V while he thought it through.

"True. But I guess that's because I wasn't ready for a brother, especially not one who looks about my age. I never thought Rina would love someone enough to get married, so I guess you're just a shock. Nothing against you personally, just the idea of you."

"Sorry."

"Not your fault. Rina needs you."

"How nice, you actually care about your little sister." I used sarcasm, and that might have been what made him laugh so hard.

"Yeah, sure, I care. I just hate it when she calls me Splat."

"Yeah, she told me about that one." I responded, glad that I broke through Matt's little barrier. I had to admit, I felt a little better about how everyone was fighting for us.

"Having fun?" A horribly familiar mechanical voice made us turn around to see ten flyboys surrounding the back of the couch. They all looked ready to fight us, and they surveyed Matt hungrily. Oh, right, the switched bodies.

"Capture the genie." One of the flyboys commanded, and another yanked me by the hair while a third one put some thick handcuffs around my wrists. Handcuffs? These guys don't have much imagination. A genie could easily break through these.

"Get the blonde boy." The same flyboy instructed, and the remaining flyboys surrounded Matt, about to capture him. And they probably would have if Matt didn't have any powers. But he did, and in two seconds there were flyboys scattered on the ground, malfunctioning and sending sparks everywhere. One was impaled by the lamp near the doorway, which would have been pretty funny to watch if Matt had slowed down enough for me to see.

"Can you get these off?" I held out the handcuffs to him.

"Duh!" he tried to rip them apart, but they did nothing. He leapt back from them the moment he couldn't break them. "Okay, maybe not."

"What?! Why not?"

"Those are special handcuffs, made from some rock that you can't find on Earth." He explained as he dug around in the pockets of the flyboys. "They use them to arrest us because they short out our powers as long as we're touching them. But they're only found at the capital. How did they get these?" he asked rhetorically.

"I wouldn't put it past them to break in and steal a few." I answered as Matt pulled a tiny silver key out of the pocket of the head flyboy.

"Aha! Hold still a sec." he placed the key in an unseen hole and they snapped open. I handed them to Matt and he shoved them off. "No way am I holding those. The more you touch them the longer it takes to get your powers back."

"Sorry." I tossed them onto the couch, surveying the mass of flaming flyboys. "Now what?"

"We relocate." Matt grabbed my wrist and we vanished, reappearing at a base in Antarctica. "This place good enough?"

"Sure, if you like penguins." I looked through the frostbitten window to see a blizzard going on outside. Matt rummaged through the fridge and came out with sardine cans.

"That's it, we're going." We came to stop at a Chinese hotel, probably five star from the looks of the lobby. One set of open double doors revealed a restaurant that fried Chinese food right before your eyes. One entire wall was a buffet. Matt rubbed his hands together, and I raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked skeptically. "I'm _hungry_." Needing no more excuse than that, he walked right in, got a plate, and started serving heaping mounds of rice, chicken, and vegetables. I handed the waiter some Chinese money (which Matt put into my pocket earlier to pay for us), got in line, and took what little food Matt left for the rest of the diners. We hardly sat at the table before Matt started shoveling food into his mouth. I think there were some points where he forgot to chew.

"Dude." Matt complained with his mouth full of shrimp. "Eat _something_. Eat _faster_. _Eat_. If you keep eating like this you're going to kill me." He handed me a roll.

"Don't you worry at all about how the fight is going?" Hey, it's why I wasn't eating.

"My parents can do anything. They'll get through this. Now start eating! I can hear my stomach rumbling, it's like an earthquake." Matt presses the roll into my fist.

"And what about you? You never stop!" I pointed to his fifth helping of food.

"I'm doing you a favor, trust me. I don't know how you can stand being so hungry all the time." He said before he got up for sixths. After that plateful he started to slow down. Once he leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes, I thought he might finally stop, until he snapped his eyes open and said "So what's for dessert?"

I shrugged. "I dunno." I only just now started cooperating with Matt, so I didn't mention that maybe he should wait a bit for dessert. He might think I just insulted him.

"I'm thinking Switzerland. Let's go." He dragged me out of my chair and through the crowds of people waiting for the cooks to make more food. Once we were out of sight, we went to Switzerland, in front of a chocolate shop. Matt marched right in and took half the store up to the registers for the woman to ring up. We were just about to go find a hotel or tourist attraction to eat at when a white bubble appeared in front of us. Rina's tired face stared at us, and I almost talked to her, but she started first.

"Okay, just so you know this is a prerecorded message. I don't have enough time to do it live. We need you guys over here, like _now_. Ari 2 is still taking over, and we need more reinforcements. No one's seriously injured, but we still need a hand, and that's where you two come in. So could you get over here and help?"

"But Rina!" Matt whined, ignoring the fact that she said this was a prerecorded message. "I wanna eat my chocolate! And he needs to eat too, he's going to starve me if he does this anymore!"

"I'm guessing Matt just complained about not getting enough to eat." Rina pressed on. "But what he doesn't know is that the flyboys totally wrecked the kitchen and now all the food is spoiling because they broke the fridge."

"NO!" Matt sounded as if someone just died. I would have tried not to laugh if this wasn't so serious.

"So could you come over? We need- oh, hold on." Rina turned away and punched a few flyboys in the heads for interrupting her transmission. "Please hurry!" Then the bubble popped, which left Matt shivering in the snow with his chocolate.

"It's too late." He kept muttering. "The food's all gone." And with that he started shoving chocolate into his mouth. "What?" he asked when he saw me give him a weird look.

"You never stop eating, do you?"

"Never. What do you want me to do, worry?"

"I'd rather you switch our bodies back and take me to your house." I said. Matt looked at me, and suddenly I was back in my old body, staring at Matt's. Matt keeled over, groaning.

"Oh jeez, you didn't eat _anything!_" he moaned, reaching for the chocolate.

"Wow, I feel full." I wobbled a bit, trying to adjust to the feeling of an overflowing stomach. Once I got over it, I actually felt kinda good. Energized, I mean. "This kinda feels good." I told Matt, who was stuffing his mouth full of chocolate once again.

"Told ya." He said with brown teeth and lips.

"Can we go now?"

"How come? 'M happy."

"You may be, but I want to fight."

He shrugged. "Your conscience." In half a second we were back on Rina's front porch, overlooking the doorway. I pushed it open eagerly while Matt swallowed, and we saw a huge battle scene playing before our eyes. Fifteen flyboys had Rina cornered on the couch against the wall, and she was trying to blow away as many as possible, but they just kept coming. No wonder Rina asked us to come!

I ran right in and started kicking flyboys in the bases of their spines. But apparently Ari 2 got smart, and the flyboys stayed upright. I tried kicking them in the necks, and a few wires broke, but they were still operational. Even when I tried harming them in every way possible, they just swarmed around me by the dozens. So I did the only thing I could think of. I blew them up. All I did was take some powder from the sole of my shoe and made the quickest, most explosive bomb I could without getting attacked too much, and let it rip. The explosion was great, and I stood there beaming as flyboy parts and bits of the walls rained around me. There was a flash of brown, and the next thing I knew someone was hugging me so hard I felt like my eyes were going to burst out of their sockets.

"You're okay!" Rina squealed. "I was so worried, Iggy, I overheard that you had to relocate because of a flyboy ambush but no one said if you had to go to the hospital or if you got ambushed again and got really hurt and I didn't even say a proper goodbye! It was so horrible without you, I was so scarred that if someone tried to get me you wouldn't be there to protect me and you weren't getting fed enough and someone might have captured you and-"

"Let 'im breathe, Rina, 'e's strugglin' for air." Matt advised from behind me while gnawing on a slightly smaller chocolate bunny, and Rina let go.

"Sorry." She blushed.

"It's okay." I kissed her. "I missed you too. How'd you get back here?"

"Gina can't hold me still when I really want to do something."

"Too true." Straightening up to look at the area, I got worried. "Is everyone okay?" Because of the occasional flyboy, the blood on the walls, the collapsing furniture, and the sounds of fighting in the distance, I figured the question was probably a good one.

"I think, I mean, I never saw any bodies or broken bones." Rina was interrupted by an earsplitting scream, and we raced to the dinning room to see what was wrong. Nudge was being suspended by her hair as flyboys took turns punching her in the gut. Gazzy was trying to fight through the wall of robots to get to her, but it wasn't working. Rina blew through the flyboys, and Gazzy and I rushed into the opening and got Nudge loose. The flyboys were about to come after us, but they were levitated out of the open window and dropped through the clouds. We turned around to see Gina, grinning through her various cuts and waving at us.

"You guys better come upstairs, Fang and Max need a hand with some more flyboys." she informed us before rushing upstairs herself. Gazzy and Nudge went to go help Angel, who sent a thought to all of us asking for help with a trap, and Rina and I sprinted up the stairs, where we saw Fang and Max fighting off flyboys through Matt's former bedroom wall. Occasionally a flyboy would literally fly up into the air if they punched them hard enough, but the flyboys were like rabbits, always multiplying.

Rina and I got into action immediately. She controlled their minds so that they would get away from Max and Fang, and while the flyboys were too busy staring into space stupidly we took care of them. Apparently their new weak spot was an indentation squarely in the chest, so once Fang found that spot we tried it on all of them. Fighting as a team, we worked our way up the stairs, where the most chaos seemed to come from. When Max took care of the last flyboy, we ended up in Rina's room. It looked completely different, partially because it was a lot messier, the window was broken in various places, and dead flyboys were scattered all over the floor. Rina's mom and dad were fighting the most surprising person of all. Ari 2 was dodging every shot they threw at him! Rina shot her laser vision at him, which he missed, but Rina's parents turned around to see who shot that.

"Rina? Iggy? You're not supposed to be here! Go back in hiding." Rina's mom ordered, afraid that we would get hurt.

"We're not going anywhere!" Rina and I yelled back at the same time as Max and Fang assumed fighting positions next to us.

"How sweet, they came back from hiding to protect her parents. This should be much easier!" Ari 2 snarled as he used his stretching powers to try and grab us. Max and Fang got there first, and twisted his arms together in a knot, which made him recoil to try and untangle it. This bought us a bit of time for Rina's parents to grab him by the arms and make sure he couldn't get any closer to us. But Ari 2 still remembered that he had powers, and poofed out of their grasp, reappearing a second later with a gun pointed at Rina's head. Ari 2's clone sprung to life out of thin air and held me hostage next to them in a similar position. The original sniffed Rina's hair with a twisted grin on his face.

"Ah, I love the stench of revenge." He murmured as he pressed the gun closer to her head. "Drop your hands and I won't harm them." He barked to Max, Fang, and Rina's parents. They all hesitated, then obeyed, posing no threat to Ari 2's reign of terror.

"Don't touch my siblings!" A cry that sound strangely like Gina's came from behind us, and Ari 2 and his clone were knocked away from us. We turned around to see Gina and Matt beating the crap out of them. We were all about to join in, but Ari 2's clone disappeared back into the original, and he leapt up, punching Gina right in the face. She stumbled back, her nose an odd shape and bleeding.

"Touching, the entire family is here." Ari 2 sneered. "And now for our little rematch. You didn't really think you would be the winner for long now, did you, Sabrina?" Rina snarled next to me. It's amazing she could still care about things as miniscule as nicknames when she was about to face one crazy guy with a whole bunch of powers. But just as Ari 2 was about to make his first move, we heard a huge explosion, and the floor collapsed beneath us. Everyone fell down to the second floor except me, who managed to grip the remains of the ceiling before I fell completely. Unfortunately I couldn't grab Rina before she fell, so I just hung there for a second, still coughing from the dust and trying to pull myself up. But before I could hoist myself up completely, army boots stomped down on my fingers, and hot, reeking breath blew on my face.

"This isn't over." Ari 2 only had to whisper, but I could still hear how fierce he sounded. "You may think you won, but you didn't even play. I'm going to come for you. Right when you least suspect it, there's going to be a noose around your girlfriend's pretty neck. And you won't be without her for long. Your days are numbered, one…" he pried my first two fingers. "…by…" by now I was suspended only by my last finger "…one." He slipped my last finger off, and I fell down amidst the rubble and into unconsciousness.

**A little while later…**

"Iggy? Wake up! Are you awake?" Rina was calling my name and shaking me, and I wanted to respond, but my jaw felt like lead.

"Rina, stop shaking him. He'll wake up when he wakes up." Gina soothed Rina.

"Is he okay?" Max wanted to know, sounding pretty concerned.

"He doesn't look too bad." Matt prompted. Now that I was gaining consciousness I could feel everyone's eyes on me. "Rina, you should care more about yourself more, I mean, dad said you were going to be captured! Aren't you worried that Ari 2 is going to come back from being disappeared and dad's prediction is going to come true?"

"Dad might be wrong for once. Fortunes change, remember?" Gina corrected. "Remember when dad predicted Rina would get married to Bruce and then Rina took another path and found Iggy again? It could be like that."

"Shut up, Gina, I'm just trying to make her worry a bit more about her own well-being. I don't wanna protect her all the time." Matt said.

"Is he going to wake up? Please tell me he's going to wake up!" From the vibrations on the floor, Rina was shaking someone. Since no one told her to stop, she was probably shaking Fang.

"He'll open his eyes in about in about fifteen seconds. And I wouldn't doubt that he can hear us right now." Gina promised.

"Iggy? Can you hear me?" Rina sounded a bit calmer, but still frantic for me to wake up.

"Mm?" I wanted to say "Yeah?" but I just couldn't move my mouth enough to form words at the moment.

"Oh Iggy, you're okay! Aren't you?"

My eyes snapped open. "Kinda."

"What do you mean? Where does it hurt?"

"Jaw." I struggled to say. Rina grazed my cheek, and the pain vanished. I moved it around a few times, getting used to the feel of a jaw that wasn't bruised or whatever.

"Thanks." I looked around, and only saw Rina, Gina, Matt, Max, and Fang staring down at me with different amounts of concern in their eyes. "Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"They're downstairs, being healed by mom." Matt answered.

"Can I see?" I asked.

"Sure. Nothing stopping you." Gina said. I tried to sit up, but groaned and fell back down due to the searing pain in my spine.

"What now?" Rina asked.

"Spine. Can't move it."

"Dude, you probably bruised it when you landed. Gimme a sec, and don't move." Matt said as he touched my back. I hissed in a breath upon contact.

"Yeah, because I can move so much right now." Ah, sarcasm, my outlet for my pain. Where would I be without it? Rina giggled next to me as Matt healed my back. I tried to sit up, and I succeeded, but I was stiff as I fought to stand up. Rina made me use her as a crutch and lead us to the living room, where I saw her mom fixing one of Gazzy's bruises while the others talked. Everyone seemed okay, and some even seemed to want to fight again.

"Hey guys, look who's back!" Rina announced us. We were greeted with several hugs (mainly from Rina's mom), a few waves, and some "hi"s. Gazzy ran up to me.

"Guess how many flyboys I got?" he asked.

"How many?"

"Twenty three!" he beamed, and I ruffled his hair.

"Great job, man!"

"Where's Angel?" Max did a head count and turned to Fang, a frantic expression on her face. "Where'd she go?"

"I didn't see her! She didn't go to the bathroom or anything, I don't think I even saw her come downstairs after she made those flyboys go upstairs and into the bomb we made for them, you know, the one that collapsed the ceiling…" Nudge said. Everyone froze, then ran for the stairs. Max got there first, and yelled "Angel!" repeatedly while looking under flyboy remains and bits of rubble. It turns out that bomb made the entire third floor fall into the second floor, and sure enough we found Angel under the air hockey table, sprawled out on the floor.

Max leaned down and cradled Angel's head in her arms. "Angel, sweetie, are you okay?" Angel didn't answer, and tears poured silently down Max's cheeks as she stroked her hair. Fang came and sat next to Max with his arm around her shoulder, looking Angel over sadly.

"She's alive." We all turned to see Rina's mom behind us, watching the trio with gloom in her eyes. "But only just. She could…go….at any minute"

"Is there anything you can do?" Gazzy asked, about to cry at the sight of his unconscious sister lying in the rubble. The kid was tough, but he was just twelve too, and this was one occasion where we could forgive him for crying.

"No. We can speed up the recovery, but sometimes…" Rina's mom trailed off, afraid to say what we were all thinking. She might never wake up. The room was silent, all staring at Angel's unconscious form. Max wouldn't let Angel go, and we weren't about to stop her. Fang just held onto Max, her only lifeboat in a sea of hurt. Nudge was crying into Gazzy's shoulder, and Gazzy just looked at his sister with no expression. He was trying to tough it out. Subconsciously, Rina grabbed my hand for comfort. I gave it a little squeeze, but in a situation like this not even I could stop the tears from forming in her eyes. Even Gina looked pretty sad. I could understand, because Angel was only a year or two younger than Gina, and they could have been great friends. The rest of the Baileys just stood there, looking sad, but a little out of place, not knowing how to feel. They barely knew Angel, so they wouldn't know how to mourn her.

Rina let go of my hand and approached Angel's body. Hesitantly, she reached out and stroked Angel's cheek with the back of her hand. A faint light showed under her skin, her scars healed, and the funny shape her left arm was making straightened out. But she still lay as lifeless as ever in Max's arms.

"That's it." Rina turned around to face us. "That's all I can do." She couldn't hold in the tears and ran into my arms, bursting into sobs. I just stroked her hair absentmindedly, trying to remember the last time I saw Angel. It was only this morning when she was cheerily eating her oatmeal. I only said good morning. I should have said more, should have at least said a goodbye to her before we went to our parents.

"She could have been the flower girl." Gina said, a sad look on her face. "I would have let her, you know. She looks like she could handle it."

"Wanna be flower girl…." Everyone jolted up and looked in Angel's direction. Angel's eyes fluttered open, and she grinned at Gina. "Cn'I be the flower girl?"

"Angel!" Max hugged her even tighter, tears of joy falling from her eyes. "Don't you ever scare me like that again! Oh baby, I was so worried about you!" Gazzy and Nudge joined in on the group hug, and Fang joined since he was there anyways, and Rina and I just couldn't miss being part of the group, so the entire flock was hugging Angel.

"Look at you guys, I leave you alone for just a few minutes and you lose it!" Angel said, giggling as Nudge gave her an extra-tight squeeze. Then she turned to Rina. "Can I be the flower girl?"

"You and Gina can both be the flower girls." Rina decided, knowing I really didn't care. "As long as you don't ever do that again!"

"Fine, I won't do it again as long as I also get to help you plan the wedding!" I suppose playing the death card had Angel feeling pretty confident.

"Fine, fine, but don't ever do that again EVER!" Rina was really excited to have Angel back, but who wouldn't? I was psyched just thinking about it! Angel was alive and at full spirits. Who wouldn't be happy?

**POV Ari 2**

Who would be happy just to have a ten-year-old come back to life? Humans are so strange, and so are the genies that communicate with them. Ignorant fools, all of them. Especially the older genie girl, Sabrina. She made more mistakes than accomplishments, and yet everyone thinks she's so great because she made her boyfriend free her and made me a genie. The idiot never learned. Now I was wished free, and I had hundreds of powers at my disposal. All of which to get revenge for myself and my creators, whose dream of a better world she destroyed with her friends.

Ah, her friends, where to begin? I could never see why my original loved them so much, and I was secretly grateful when my creators taught me to hate them. They especially hated the girl Max and her destiny to save the world. I saw what she really was: a weak link. She couldn't lead, but those airheads of a flock looked up to her anyways. Especially the boy Fang. Silent, dark, not at all like my creators had hoped for. He was only vital because Max depended on him to lead. She always needed reassurance that she was doing the right thing, and he was useful only for this pointless task. Then there was the girl, Nudge. She never stopped talking, which therefore made her a failure. She could only be an annoyance, no real use at all. The blonde boy, Gazzy, and his sister, Angel, were also pointless, mere obstacles for me to overcome to get to the grand prize, the last boy, Iggy. He was the only one worth having on our side. Explosives, wings, and he knew how to find and cook food, all very useful skills. But he ran with the wrong crowd, and he could never be one of us, therefore I was taught to hate him. But I didn't need to be taught. I hated him already.

Iggy always caused my creators pain. They never meant to blind him, but when they tried to help him he would shun them and never listen and only listen to Max, just like the other idiots in her flock. Then he found the genie Sabrina, and all hope was lost. Her enchanting aura made him fall for her, and she told him how to defeat us in exchange for his love. He was dangerous with this information, and he shared it with his flock, which only made things worse. I tried to capture the genie, make her become my genie, and I took the boy at the last moment to persuade her. But she made a plan for the first time in her life, and overthrew me with her boyfriend. So now I needed to overthrow them as the first step to get Itex's By-Half Plan back. They could pose a real threat. And I needed revenge for myself as well as my creators.

The genie's parents were just as stupid as her daughter. When my flyboys and I snuck into the genie capital to steal the handcuffs, we also shut down the security system on this house. The owners rarely checked on the status of their security, so the alarm never sounded when I left and clung to the roof of their house until they thought everyone was either dead or gone.

I climbed down the walls, like a spider some would say, and into the first window that no one could see me climb in. I took one of my injured flyboys and was about climb back onto the roof and fix him so he would be in full operation when I next needed him and his clones. But I overheard the conversation going on below me and paused.

"Can I be the flower girl?" the girl named Angel was asking while being hugged by the rest of the flock. It was sort of sickening.

"You and Gina can both be the flower girls, as long as you don't ever do that again!" the genie Sabrina answered while giving an extra squeeze.

"Fine, I won't do it again as long as I also get to help you plan the wedding!" I heard enough. I crawled back to the roof with the robot on my back. A wedding? That could be an interesting place. Maybe I could meet them there and get my revenge.

Once I connected a few circuits, the flyboy's eye glowed to life, and he sat upright and saluted me.

"Fully operational" the flyboy reported it's own status. "Awaiting orders."

"I want you to track the girl named Sabrina and the boy named Iggy. Find any information you can about a wedding." I instructed it. These new models of flyboys could do anything you wanted if you just asked it, not at all like the last ones where you had to program it into them. The flyboy saluted and flew off to spy on the flock, leaving me alone to think.

Iggy and Sabrina made me look weak and stupid, but that was their blunder. Now I was back for a rematch, and this time I was going to win.

**Okay, right now I'm home sick, so I'm just going to post it right now. But because I'm sick, there's probably some mistakes in there. Sorry! But you could tell me what mistakes I made, I could correct them. Please review, I love them so much!**

**PS: I lied, this is now the longest chapter at 6,700 something words. I would have split it into two, but you guys deserve it!**


	11. Another Wedding

**Okay, so far I've gotten reviews from Katie-3llen, Bubble Blower, Maximum Ride all the way, max ride girl, and DarkBlade98, so thank you sooooo much! Let's see, what prizes are we giving out for the reviewers today? How about an update? I'm so cheap. Plus I stole some of Matt's Swiss chocolate when he wasn't looking, so you guys can have some of that! And for those who said they liked it or loved it, you get to meet a movie star (girls, this is your chance to meet Orlando Bloom. C'mon, I know you want to meet him!)! Now, let's get to that chapter.**

**Disclaimer: you should know this by now. All I own is this laptop, some CDs, all the food I've ever touched, Rina, Gina, Matt, Rina's mom, Rina's dad, the servant kids, and the plot! Got it? Good. Enjoy the chapter!**

**Chapter 10: Another Wedding**

**POV Max**

Well, today was the day. The day Rina and Iggy were going to get married. About time, too! They've loved each other long enough, so they may as well get married. Fang and I did that, and look how happy we turned out.

I got up at six for a change, shook Nudge and Angel awake, and went to go drag Rina out of bed. Man, if you thought Nudge was hard to wake you should have tried Rina! It was also kinda difficult getting her up without waking up Iggy, too. Rina's room was ready, but because her family's house was completely destroyed, Rina's parents slept in Fang's room, Fang slept in my room (make that in my bed….right next to me…), and Matt and Gina got Rina's room until they could repair their house (which should take, oh, I don't know, an hour, maybe two?). But back to now. We had to pull on her legs to get her out.

"Come on, Rina, get up!" I groaned as I pried her fingers from the side of the mattress.

"Five more minutes." Rina muttered sleepily, shoving the covers on top of her again.

"You have to get up and get ready!" Nudge whined.

"Ready means rested, and rested means sleep." Even in her sleep, Rina could be a deep thinker.

"Don't you want to get married?" Angel asked, leaning closer to her sleeping form. From the tone she was using, I could have sworn she was trying to control Rina's mind. But apparently Rina was blocking her out.

"Maybe." Rina opened one eye at her.

"So you need to be in your wedding dress and ready to go in a few hours."

"Yeah, I do." Rina agreed.

"But to do all that, you need to be awake!" Angel summarized. "So get up and get ready!"

"Don' wanna get up." Apparently Iggy overheard and rolled over away from us in his sleep. Nudge and Angel exchanged smirks and continued pulling on Rina's legs. Rina kicked them away.

"Sleep now, dress later." She muttered.

"But don't you want Iggy to see you in that wedding dress?" Nudge tried. "Just imagine it, you walk down the aisle, and he sees you in the dress. He can't stop drooling because you look so pretty. And then before you know it you'll be spending your entire lives together! But it can't happen unless you get up."

"Go away." Rina responded, turning over. Nudge shrugged and turned to me. "Your turn" she mouthed. I thought hard, and almost instantly a devious idea came to mind. All I had to do was say six little words. I leaned so close to Rina that I could almost feel her hair on my nose.

"Tess is coming to the wedding."

"I'm up!" Rina pulled off the covers and sprang upright. Nudge and Angel laughed silently, and I smirked, then we all pulled her over to my room to get started. Fang was still snoring on my bed, looking like he just now went to sleep. I shook him.

"Time to go help Iggy."

"No it isn't." He rolled to the other side of the bed and continued his slumber fest. No one wanted to wake up today! Nudge tried her luck and crawled onto the bed. Once she was hovering over Fang she started tickling him lightly.

"Fang, there's a spider on you!" Fang just smacked it, probably thinking it was a real spider. Rina made a swarm of real spiders start crawling all over him, and Nudge jumped back. "Fang, there's spiders on you!" Fang started smacking them left and right, but they just kept coming back and tickling whatever skin was exposed. When he finally opened his eyes to see the extent of the damage and saw the spiders, he almost ran out of the bed.

"Rina!" he growled.

"Can't kill me, you were the one that wouldn't get out!" she stuck her tongue out at Fang playfully.

"Why should I?" he checked the clock. "Six thirty? I'm not getting up this early." He was going to go back on the bed, but the spiders stopped him. Fang? Afraid of spiders? That's a new one.

"Because you need to get up and help Iggy get dressed. And you need to dress too." Angel explained.

"That tux again?"

"Yup."

"Too itchy."

"Iggy got dressed up for you." Nudge pointed out.

"So?"

"You should get dressed too."

"No."

"Why not? I thought you looked great in a tux." I said. Hey, it's true. He looked so handsome in a tux……

**Flashback**

I was so nervous to go down the aisle. Jeb wasn't walking with me, which I was grateful for, but it still seemed scary alone. As Nudge started after Angel, Rina took me aside.

"Max, everything's fine. You're going to be great."

"Are you sure I won't trip or something?" I asked the first question that came to mind.

"If anyone's going to do that it's going to be me." Rina grinned. I felt a little reassured. "Good luck." Rina started down the aisle after Nudge was halfway through. Sure enough, about three-fourths of the way down, her heel caught on a small hole and she tripped. Iggy was halfway to her before she recovered and finished. Then everyone turned around expectantly, waiting for me. Well, better give 'em what they're waiting for.

I took a hesitant step onto the red carpet, and slowly came out until I was completely out of the shadows. The audience gasped, and I froze. What? Did Nudge do my makeup wrong? (Yes, they convinced me to wear makeup.) What there something wrong with my hair?

"_Chill, Max. There's nothing wrong. You look gorgeous, and the wings only add to the effect. Now don't forget to walk._" Rina soothed. Oh yeah, I still need to go down the aisle. I walked down the rest of the aisle, grinning at random people. Oh, look at the bride! This must be the happiest day of her life, she's getting married to her lifelong love, she can't be nervous at all! She doesn't look like her nerves are eating her whole and saving her courage for dessert! She doesn't mind that the whole is going to see when she trips or stumbles!

"_There's nothing wrong, Max. You're doing great!_" Angel took her turn to calm me.

"_And there's one extremely good thing about you doing this._" Rina added.

"_Yeah? What's that?_" I challenged. What could possibly be good about having every eye on me?

"_Fang can't take his eyes off you._" Right. Fang. He must be pretty nervous too. This I had to see. I looked up to see Fang with a huge grin on his face. Wow, Fang grinning? I never thought I'd see the day. But my breath was almost stolen when I saw what he was wearing. The black tux didn't stand out from the other tuxes there, but this one flattered him. The sleeves were tight enough to suggest muscles underneath the black fabric, and so was the middle. The white shirt beneath the overcoat even opened up a bit to show his chest. And the pants were just his length. I bet it was a lot comfier than this dress, which was cut way too low for my liking. In short, Fang looked amazing.

**Back to the present**

Fang cocked his head. "I look good in a tux?"

"I'll say!" Rina answered for me.

"Yeah, could you wear it again? You looked great in it the first time." Nudge chimed in, and Angel kept bobbing her head in a ferocious nod.

He looked like he could groan. "Fine, I'll wear the stupid tux."

"Excellent!" Rina beamed. In the next second she had three tuxes in her arms, and handed them to Fang. "Here, take these, wake up the guys, and change." Fang took them wordlessly and left.

"Great idea, Max!" Angel congratulated me. "That worked out perfectly."

"Uh, thanks, but I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, but Fang will do anything if you told him to." Nudge told me.

"He does?"

"Haven't you noticed?" Rina asked. She shook her head without waiting for my response. "Max, Max, Max, you're married! You should have noticed by now."

I shrugged. "Now, time to dress Rina." We all turned to Rina, who backed off.

"Why did I agree to this again?"

"Because we're all girls here, so we get to help!" Angel claimed.

"So what? Can't we just put on the dress and be done with it?"

"And miss out on getting even? Not a chance." I told her, then went into my closet and dragged out her wedding dress, which was really my wedding dress. We were just going to alter it a bit to make it work for her. "Now take this into the bathroom and change. We'll start the alterations once you're done." Sighing, Rina snatched the dress from my hands and went into the bathroom.

We were finished putting on our bridesmaid (Nudge), flower girl (Angel), and maid of honor (me) dresses when Rina came out. Even though the dress wasn't made for her, it fit her almost perfectly. It even made her waist look a little smaller, which was tiny already. Rina scowled at us when we stopped everything and stared at her.

"Alright, you can tell me how bad I look."

"Bad? You don't look bad. You look brilliant!" Nudge said.

"Yeah, and we haven't even finished yet!" Angel agreed. I just nodded with a smile on my face. I was never one for giving compliments. Rina looked relieved.

"Okay, now start your torture." We started with the dress. It needed to be adjusted a bit, but other than that it was a perfect fit. Nudge did her hair in a bun, and Angel did eyeliner and lip gloss. Rina sat through it all, silently, but grumpily. She looked bored out of her mind, and I couldn't blame her. But if she was going to look nice for her wedding she'd need to sit through this.

"Done!" Nudge finally announced, and spun the chair around so Rina could see how she looked. I had to admit she looked beautiful. I bet Bride Weekly was going to come in any minute and start the photo shoot. Rina lightly felt one of her cheeks, looking shocked.

"Do you like it?" Angel asked, although she probably knew the answer already.

"Yeah. Great job, guys." Rina spoke in hushed tones. I bet she could hardly believe it was her face staring back in the mirror. Funny, I felt the same way when I looked in the mirror and saw an eraser staring back at me.

"Knock knock." Rina's mom and Gina came in, already in their dresses. "The door was unlocked." Rina's mom explained. "So does my daughter look any different yet?"

"Come see for yourself. Angel beamed and led them in. Rina's mom and Gina gasped.

"Wow, Rina, you look gorgeous!" Gina said.

"I've just got one thing to fix." Rina's mom reached out and pulled two locks of hair from Rina's bun, so that they bounced down on either side of her face, framing it perfectly. "There." She beamed. "Perfect."

**POV Fang**

I took the tuxes from Rina's arms and left the girls to do their beautification stuff. I'll never understand why they feel a need to get every little detail perfect. They could just throw on the dress and be done with it, but no, they have to do hair and makeup and they have to be unnaturally skinny just to get up, repeat after the priest, and kiss a guy. Insane.

I pushed Gazzy's room open to meet camouflage everywhere. The walls were camouflage, the bedding was camouflage, the wood on his furniture was blending in with the walls, and even the carpet was probably supposed to be grass. After looking around a bit, I finally saw Gazzy's strawberry blonde hair peeking out from some camouflage blankets above camouflage sheets. Yanking down the covers, I saw him sprawled out all over the mattress.

"Wake up." I shook his shoulder. He blinked his eyes open and looked at me.

"What's up?"

"Tux." I tossed it on top of him. "Get changed, then we gotta go wake up Iggy." Gazzy groaned and flopped back onto the blankets.

"Do I have to?"

"Unless you want Rina to force you."

"Fine." He got up and went into his bathroom, and I could hear the crinkle of the plastic being ripped off. I took this time to get into my own tux. Why am I wearing this, you ask? Because Max liked me wearing it. I'd wear poison oak if she wanted me to.

"Ready." Gazzy came out a few minutes later, his hair still sticking up in all places.

"Let's go." We left the room and went across the hall to Iggy's room, taking care not to wake up Rina's family. But apparently some of them were already awake, because Rina's mom and Gina came out of my bedroom, still in their dresses. They looked pretty good, probably because they were genies. But they didn't look nearly as amazing as Max when we got married….

**Flashback**

I was actually kinda freaked out to be getting married. What if I messed up? What if I embarrassed myself? Wait, I'm the silent guy, I shouldn't be worrying about this. All I have to do is be silent and stand there like a statue for the entire wedding….

"Loosen up a bit." Iggy told me from next to me. For a moment I forgot that we were outside and waiting for the audience to show up.

"Why should I?" I retorted.

"Because you look like a statue."

"That's the plan."

"Oh, you actually intend to not move or speak the entire wedding? I though you just did it because you could." Iggy responded sarcastically.

"No."

"So loosen up a bit. You don't want to be a statue the entire time."

"Uh huh."

"How come?"

"If I move I'll do something wrong."

"Jeez, you're worried about _that?_ You're not going to do anything wrong."

"Because?"

"Because there isn't much to mess up in the first place. Just be a bit more flexible, otherwise Max isn't going to kiss you." Well, if you put it that way….

The girls all came down the aisle one by one, looking nice. Rina tripped, but then she recovered, which made me feel a bit better. Then I forgot how nervous I was when I saw Max. Oh my god, she looked flawless. The dress was low-cut, which looked perfect on her. Its hem just grazed the ground, which gave the impression that she was floating. And the white really brought out her eyes. She was like eye candy to me. I couldn't look away.

**Back to the present **

Once Iggy's door closed, Gazzy went to his side of the bed and made the entire bed shake.

"Wake up, it's time to get dressed!"

"Bite me."

"C'mon, get up!"

"Lemme alone."

"No! You gotta get up and get married!"

"Sleep now, wedding later." He rolled so far away from Gazzy that he rolled off the bed and onto the floor. "Huh? Where'd Rina go?"

"The girls are dressing her up." I explained.

"Yeah, you got the most sleep out of all of us, so get up, get in the tux and make sure you're ready!" Gazzy told him.

"Ready for what?" Iggy was still trying to wake up.

"The wedding!"

"Oh, right, that." Jeez, how long can a guy take to remember his own wedding?

"Tux." I pushed the tux into his arms. "Go get changed." Grumbling, Iggy got off the floor and into the bathroom. When he came out, he was itching his back furiously.

"Why do they have to make these things so itchy?" He whined.

"Beats me." Gazzy shrugged. "Now what?"

"Can I see Rina?" Iggy asked eagerly.

"No." came a reply from near the closet. We turned to see Matt lounged on the couch, already in his tux. He wasn't eating anything for once, but he looked ready to eat the first thing he touched.

"How did you get here?" Gazzy asked.

"There's nothing stopping me." Matt stared at the ceiling, rolling his eyes at how stupid the question apparently was.

"Why are you here, then?"

"Rina sent me here. Said to ask for you guys to not try and see them until the wedding. Something about tradition. She also wants you to go to the gardens and make sure everything's ready. And the last thing she wants you to do is write me a check for ten grand and take me to the kitchens." Matt went through his little list.

"She didn't ask you to tell us to give you ten grand." Gazzy said.

"No, but she actually did ask you to take me to the kitchens so then I'd stop bugging them. Let's go, let's go, before I eat the couch cushions, please!" Matt got up and pushed us out the door. Iggy stopped him before he could get us out of the hall.

"Can't you lead and we follow?"

"No, when I'm hungry my powers don't work as well. I can't navigate this place, so lead the way!"

"We don't know this place any more than you do."

"Great, just great."

"We could call the servants and have them show the way." Gazzy piped up.

"Servants? You have servants?"

"Yeah. They take us around and clear the table and wake us up. Wanna call them?" Gazzy offered.

"As long as there's food." Matt grumbled. We went back into Iggy's room and used the phone to call them. In two minutes all six of them were standing in front of us.

"What do you need?" Demi asked, eyeing our tuxes.

"Just need some people to show us to breakfast." Iggy explained. "You three are girls, go see if Rina needs anything." Demi, Tara, and Skye turned to leave, but Iggy stopped them. "Wait, since I need to make sure everything's good, you guys good for the band?"

"Yeah." Demi nodded. "We'll play at the reception, just like last time." The girls left, which left us with the boys.

"Who's that?" Taylor pointed at Matt.

"Right, Taylor, Dylan, Mini Fnick, this is Matt, Rina's older brother. Matt, Dylan's the kid with the dirty blonde hair, Mini Fnick's real name is Kyle and he looks like Fang, and Taylor's the one who asked who you are." Iggy introduced.

"Hi, hi, and hi." Matt nodded to each of them. "Now take us to breakfast!"

"Yes sir, Mister Matt sir." Dylan saluted, then started down the hall.

"Cute kid." Matt muttered before catching up to them. We followed as the servants showed Matt the kitchens. You would have thought it was Christmas the way Matt looked over the room full of stoves, fridges, and fryers. He got right to work, stealing from the fridge and eating whatever he grabbed as he made some French fries in the fryers. Apparently the cooks weren't fast enough to satisfy his hunger. And once all his food was prepared he just sat at the small table in the corner and started eating. The guy could really eat. It was kinda sick to watch how he practically tore the bread with his teeth, like a wild animal. Reminds me of one of those documentaries where the bear caught his prey and was ripping it to shreds. But for some reason we couldn't look away.

**POV Iggy**

As we all watched Matt pig out on food in the corner, Dylan pulled me aside.

"Can I talk to you?" he pulled on my sleeve.

"Sure." Dylan pulled me to a corner of the kitchen. "What's up?"

"You want us to watch over him-" he jerked a head over in Matt's direction "-while you take care of stuff? I think he's going to be here for a while."

"Yeah, that would be great, actually. How'd you know I needed to do stuff?"

"The groom always checks on things while the bride gets ready."

"Rina must be a traditionalist, then."

"Not really."

"What do you mean?" I don't think Dylan knew Rina well enough to make that judgment.

"Well, she's marrying you, isn't she? I'd think most genies would marry other genies. Superiority and all that stuff."

"Yeah, good thing she isn't like that." I turned to go drag Fang and Gazzy away from the gruesome sight of Matt's eating, because I sure wasn't going to do this alone! But Dylan grabbed my arm.

"One more thing."

"Yeah?"

"You're feeling okay?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Your nerves aren't acting up?"

"Not really. They might later, but now they're fine."

"You're not going to run away at the last second, are you?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Look, I'm just checking. A lot of guys get nervous at their weddings. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"Thanks, Dylan." I ruffled his hair. "You're not a bad kid."

"Thanks." He beamed. "But you're not going to run out on Rina, are you?"

"What makes you think I would?"

"Just answer. Would you?"

"No, never."

"Good. Now go do your stuff. We'll watch Matt for you." He pushed me into Gazzy, who looked at me.

"C'mon, they're gonna watch Matt for us." I muttered to Gazzy and Fang. They nodded and went out the door. I followed after Dylan and Taylor gave me one last wave (because Mini Fnick would never do such a thing).

"Wait!" Dylan cried.

"What now?" I swung around and ran into Dylan.

"You'll need a guide." He pulled over Mini Fnick and shoved him next to me. "Have fun!" I knew as well as they did that Mini Fnick would rather stay there and watch Matt, but it's fun to torture a silent guy, as I knew only too well, so I didn't complain.

"Thanks, Dylan."

**POV Rina**

I could hardly eat my lunch, even though mom, Gina, and Max kept telling me to. I mean, today I was getting married. This was one of the few occasions in your life when you could feel scared and excited at the same time. And all that emotion and anxiety churning around in my stomach kinda made me loose my appetite.

"Rina, are you going to eat at all today?" Even Demi asked me as she refilled my water.

"Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see how hungry I am at the reception."

"Well, you should at least _try_ to eat. It's not healthy." She pointed to my plate, which wasn't touched.

"You're not my mother, you know. That's my mother." I nodded towards mom sitting at the other side of the table.

"Yeah, I know. I just don't want you passing out from lack of food right in the middle of the vows."

"Well, I did trip on the aisle at the last wedding I went to." I admitted, still blushing.

"And if you have food in you, then you won't make a lot of mistakes because you'll have energy enough to pay attention."

"Good point. You're pretty smart." I rewarded her.

"Whatever, just eat." She went back into the kitchens to get more food out. I ate half of my meal and felt a little more energized. At least if anything happened I'd be strong enough for it.

Once lunch was done I turned to Nudge. "Hey Nudge, could you do me a favor and go ask Iggy how everything's going?"

"Uh, sure, but couldn't you just find out for yourself?"

"Well, these things keep changing. When you ask out loud it's more direct."

"Oh, okay! I'll go ask."

Ten minutes later, while we were still working on getting the knots out of Max's hair (we (well, mainly Angel and Gina) decided to pass the extra time by making sure we looked perfect), Nudge came back. "I can't find him."

"Hmm…" I looked at the layout of the building in my mind and didn't see Iggy anywhere on it. "That's funny, I can't find him on the building layout."

"Maybe he went out to get something last-minute?" Angel suggested.

"Gimme a sec." I held up a finger as I checked the town layout. When I couldn't find him there, I checked the outskirts, the county, the state, the country, the continent, and the world. I couldn't find him anywhere. But how could he be outside the Earth? Even if Matt decided to take him out there or something, most planets aren't suitable for human needs, so even with a genie he'd be really uncomfortable. Maybe I just can't trace him. He's probably at least within the town.

"I can't find him anywhere in the world. Maybe it's me. Mom, you check, see if you can't find him." I asked mom.

"Sure, sweetie." She was silent for ten seconds, then turned back to me with a worried expression on her face. "No luck."

"Gina?" I pleaded. She has to know something! It seemed like an eternity before she responded.

"Nope, I can't find him either."

"Matt." I murmured. I sent him with Iggy, he must know what's wrong. I made my signature message, two white bubbles, and sent one to Matt, keeping one with me. I found him sprawled on an armchair in the theater, laughing at some reality show and spilling popcorn everywhere.

"MATT!" he almost jumped out of the chair when I yelled his name.

"What?! What'd I do?! Oh, it's you, Rina. Jeez, don't scare me like that!" Matt recovered, his popcorn spilled all over his front.

"Yeah, sorry. Where's Iggy? He's not with you, is he?"

"Who's Iggy?"

I groaned. T.V always made Matt loose his memory. Something about watching and eating at the same time made him loose all thought. "The tall blonde guy who used to be blind."

"Who?"

"Your future brother-in-law."

"What's an in-law?"

"The guy you took to China and Switzerland to eat?"

"Oh, the guy who didn't eat anything! What about him?" I rolled my eyes. Matt always remembered whatever has to do with food.

"Is he with you?"

"Nope."

"What?! What happened to him?"

"Nothing. When we were in the kitchens he talked with that Dylan kid about them watching me while I ate, and then he took Gazzy and Fang and Mini Fnick and went to make sure everything was ready, and that Taylor kid and the guy named Dylan took me here."

"And how long ago was that?"

"'Bout three hours ago."

"Where is he if he isn't with you, then?"

"What do I look like, the Dalai Llama?"

"Just use your powers to try and find him."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm going to beat you to a pulp if you don't start looking right now." Max threatened for me, waving a fist. And Matt saw how Max fought those flyboys, so he closed his eyes in concentration. Fifteen seconds later, he opened them.

"Nope, no clue where he is." I sighed and put my head in my hands.

"Can I go now?" Matt asked, back to the T.V loving zombie in two seconds flat.

"Yeah." The bubble burst, and I sat on the rim of the tub, massaging my forehead. Where could he be? Why couldn't any of us find him?

"Rina?"

"Yeah Angel?" I looked up.

"Maybe you should try finding Iggy without the powers before you get too worried." She suggested innocently.

"Yeah, Rina, some of the guests have arrived already. Maybe we've got one too many genies here and they're blocking the information signal?" Gina agreed. Smart kid, still in school but already thinking of top-level possibilities. Possibilities you guys probably wouldn't understand, so I won't explain this one.

"Maybe. So we should try searching the old-fashioned way?" I summarized.

"Exactly." Gina said.

"Fine then. Let's get started. Mom, you get dad and search the west wing. Nudge, Max you guys try east. Angel, could you try searching in the center and basement?"

"Sure." Angel responded. "Who's going to take the outdoors?"

"Good point. Would you call Demi, Tara, and Skye and have them search?" Angel nodded.

"Can I bring Tara with us so we don't get lost?" Nudge asked.

"Sure. In fact, Angel, you take Skye when you look. I'll take Demi outside because I could use some help. Everyone clear?" Everyone nodded. "Okay, let's go!"

**Several searches later**

"Okay, we've searched the gardens, the stables, and the wedding area at least three times, and we haven't had any luck. Are you sure there's no other place out here to search?" I was getting desperate. No one inside could find him, so he must be out here! But if he is why couldn't we find him?

"I'm positive. If he's out here we would have seen him." Demi sighed. I groaned and sat down on the concrete wall next to the flower bed.

"It's hopeless. Where did he go?"

"Calm down Rina, I'm sure he's here somewhere. You just might not know because he keeps changing positions or something." Demi tried to soothe me. "It'll be okay."

I was about to respond when I looked at the house and saw Dylan running towards us. I could hardly believe a human was that fast.

"TALI!" Dylan skidded to a stop in front of us and turned to Demi. "We gotta go NOW! Huge problem! Ari 2's in the wine cellar and he's got Jake and d- ooh." He noticed me. "Maybe I shouldn't have said that?"

"Chill, Newt, she knows about the fake names." Boy, Demi was just calming everyone today!

"You wouldn't happen to know where Iggy is, would you?" I asked Dylan hopefully. He cocked his head.

"I just said."

"No you didn't."

"Yeah I did." He looked back to Demi.

"Okay, maybe I _only_ told her about the fake names." Demi smiled sheepishly.

"Okay then, let me rephrase for those who don't know who we're talking about. Iggy is in the wine cellar with Kyle, and they're both tied up and blindfolded with-"

"Iggy!" I exclaimed. I jumped back onto the ground and started running back to the house.

"But I wouldn't- she's never going to listen to me, is she?" Dylan asked Demi. She shook her head no. But ignoring that, Iggy was in the wine cellar? With _Ari 2_? I thought it would take him longer to find us! Oh their human god, this dress was killing me! These were never made to run in. I switched to white turtleneck and white jeans. Ah, much better.

I found the wine cellar with no trouble. The door was locked in the human way, so I just took the deadbolt out telepathically and stumbled down the stairs.

"Quit struggling. Won't help." Kyle? Right, Dylan did say he was here too.

"I'll struggle if I want to!" Only one person could be that persistent…

"IGGY!" I yelled when I saw him behind some boxes of brandy. He was in his tux, but he was also tied up in almost every type of rope, and he was blindfolded. Kyle was in a similar position, except he didn't look as anxious as Iggy, nor as tired. He just looked calm, like he was captured by a genie with his master's son's best friend every day.

"Rina? That you?" Iggy straightened up from his slouch and turned in the direction of my voice.

"Yeah, it's me. Hold on, I'm getting those ropes off."

"No, Rina, don't-" his warning came too late. I grabbed the ropes and almost got electrocuted. When I let go, I flew back about five feet and into the concrete wall behind me. Ow……..

"Genie-proof rope. Extremely useful, don't you think?" Ari 2 came around a corner, a glass of wine in his left hand. He grinned smugly at my frazzled body.

"Well, if it isn't my good friend Ari 2. So tell me, how are you taking your second defeat?" I replied snidely, trying to ignore the burns on my hands, the only kind I wouldn't be able to heal myself.

"Temper, Sabrina."

"Rina. Or is your clone mind too simple to remember that two names can go with the same face?" In three milliseconds Ari 2 came from the other side of the cellar to two inches away from my face.

"My mind is _not_ simple." He growled, then leaned away. "I got you here, didn't I? If I didn't steal your fiancé here and his little protector-" he jerked a head at Iggy and Kyle "-you'd never fall into my trap. And speaking of which." a metal click echoed across the cellar, and I knew he just locked us in again. Ari 2 waited patiently as I ran back up the stairs, both with powers and without. It was no use. The rope shorted my powers out. Ari 2 smirked at my horrified face.

"Let the games begin."

**Oooooh, busted! Cue the ominous music. What now? Rina's powers are shorted out, all the witnesses are tied and blindfolded, and Ari 2's been saving his energy just for this moment. In the words of Filtch (he's the cleaning guy at Hogwarts), "oh, dear, we **_**are**_** in trouble."**

**Oh, and I kinda lied with the title about the wedding being now. That was just to make you think that not a lot of stuff would happen!**

**But you know, the more reviews I get the sooner I post! So please, make my day and review! I'll love you guys forever, and all you have to do is press the cute little purple button down there! Please? They make me so happy!**


	12. We Hate Ari 2

**Yeah, better start with the thank you's. So thank you to ghj1, Evil Angel of DOOM (her story rocks, you all ought to check it out if you like this, it's called Not Another MR Fanfic!), Bubble Blower, IssytheWriter (yeah, I do a lot of cliffies. I try to cut back, but it's so hard!), Maximum Ride all the way, and Katie-3llen (good luck with your fic!)! But please review if you haven't, I love to know what you guys think of it! Thanks to the people who are going to or already have but I haven't read yet. You guys rock my world!**

**Okay, does anyone know how evil some people can be because of revenge? They're driven by the fact that they were defeated, and then they feel a need to get back at whoever caused them that misery. Like if you watch the Simpsons (Matt Groening rules!), there's Sideshow Bob, who was sent to jail because Bart and Lisa uncovered how he framed Krusty the Klown for armed robbery and took over his T.V show. And then you see Sideshow Bob try to kill Bart so many times it isn't even funny anymore. That would be kinda like this, except I'm not making Ari 2 come back for a rematch like ten times. But I love how the Simpsons makes it new every time, I mean Matt Groening is a total genius for keeping it fresh, how can he do that and all those new episodes all the time? If you people don't watch the Simpsons, you really should because besides the fact that it's the longest-running animated show, it's really-**

"**Roughdiamond5!"**

**Oh, hi Rina! Wait, you're not Rina.**

"**No, I'm Tali. You fanfic people also know me as Demi."**

**Yeah, sorry, Tali, you just look so much like Rina. I wonder why?**

**(shrugs) "I don't know, why do you look so much like some people? Like the brown hair/blue eyes/easily-burned skin combo?"**

**Yeah, no clue.**

"**So stop bugging me about it!"**

**Fine. How come you're here then?**

"**Well, Rina and Iggy are in the cellar with Ari 2 and Jake (you know him as Kyle), and the rest of the flock and the Baileys are looking for them, so I found this really cool door in this part of the mansion that lead me over here to your computer! So since I'm part of the story I thought I'd come over and say hi."**

**Sweet. Well, I was just about to update, but do you have anything you want to say to the readers?**

"**Uh….drink milk? Look both ways before crossing the street? Report any flying wolf-men to the nearest law enforcement? I don't know what to say."**

**Well, you could save me a bit of time and just tell the readers exactly why I made you up in the first place….**

"**What, you mean you were going to **_**tell**_** them why we're here?"**

**Yeah.**

"**Don't even THINK about it! You'll blow our secret out of the water! I won't let you!"**

**Aww, c'mon! The readers need to know, and the flock needs to know even more!**

"**No way, those readers can figure it out by themselves, you left hints! And no way are we going to tell the flock!"**

**C'mon, Tali, they need to know.**

"**No they don't!"**

**Ooh, look at me! (waves story notebook in Tali's face) These are the plans that tell exactly what's going to happen to you and everyone else in this story, and they're right here!**

"**GIVE ME THOSE PAPERS!"**

**I swear, you have too much temper built up. You should see a shrink, I know one you could go to.**

"**I don't care, give me those papers! You can't tell the whole world who we are!"**

**Oh yes I can!**

"**Get over here right now and give me those papers!"**

**Never! (Tali chases roughdiamond5 around the room as roughdiamond5 cackles and waves papers around and Tali tries to steal them) Okay people, here's your chapter, and before I forget I don't own Maximum Ride, I only own Rina, the servant kids, and the plot!**

"**You don't own us! And that plot will soon be mine! You can't run forever!"**

**Watch me! You just keep saying that, Tali. Enjoy the chapter, everyone!**

"**Get back here! I need those papers! DEATH TO ROUGHDIAMOND5!"**

**Chapter Twelve: We Hate Ari 2**

**POV Rina**

We are in _so_ much trouble. Ari 2 was back, my powers were shorted out from touching those handcuffs, and Ari 2 was just about ready to murder on the spot.

"Ah, but Sabrina, I like to play with my food before I eat it." Crap, Ari 2 can read my mind but I can't read his? No fair.

"You worry about mental abilities when I'm about to have some fun? I'll never understand your type of genie."

"That's because you clones have no brains!" Maybe I shouldn't have said that, because he blasted liquid flames through his hands, missing me by millimeters because I ran out of his sight just in time. Stupid humans, always so slow! Come on, powers, get back!

"Missed me!"

"Not for long!" He shot another one at me, barely singing my hair. I knocked over a crate of wine to get out of the way, but I was safe. This time he tried to freeze me, but I dodged it again, forced to do a sort of twirl to get out of the way.

"You can't dance forever!" he ran around the cellar so fast he was a brown blur. I tried to decide where he was going to be, but I couldn't. Was speed one of his abilities?

"No, but this is!" Suddenly he lunged for me and I was in his arms. But not the good kind of way. He ran a few more laps around the cellar, then dropped me right before he hit the wall. I went flying into it while he narrowly avoided it and skidded to a stop. I could almost hear some bones breaking, and I collapsed to the floor, lying perfectly still.

"Get up, I know you're awake." He kicked me in the gut. Great, another pain to add to my museum of wounds. I could taste blood and feel it trickling down my forehead. It was hard to move, so I just lay there, taking in the hurt, not daring to open my eyes.

Then a fresh, searing pain ripped through me. I had never felt this before, but based off of descriptions from others I knew what was happening to me: I was being tortured! My nerves were on fire and I couldn't hold in my scream. It echoed off of the cement walls, but I doubted that no one but Ari 2, Iggy, and Kyle could hear me.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!" I shrieked. Stop the fire, stop the daggers, just stop it and leave me alone! Enough already, just STOP IT!

"RINA!" Iggy yelled. He knew I was in pain, but being tied and blindfolded he couldn't do much. "Leave her alone, you $&!" (That's right, Iggy called Ari 2 the b word. Sorry to the underage kids.)

"Why should I?" Ari 2 sneered, looking down at me with disgust as he saw my red eyes open in pain. "You did likewise to me."

"I. Didn't. Want to." My breath came in gasps. It felt like there were knives digging into my lungs. I could have passed out. "You. Would have. Killed them."

"Oh, does the puny genie care about all the pathetic humans?" Ari 2 leaned closer to my face, speaking in tones only a baby would appreciate. I spit in his face while gasping, and he pulled away, wiping it off.

"So arrogant. Let's fix that." He lifted me upright telepathically, and made my feet stick to the floor. I couldn't do anything to stop it. I was his little dummy, too weak to do anything back. Once I was upright he started punching me. And not just in the gut. He did a full job, the face, the chest, the stomach. He even kicked me a few times in the legs. Iggy was full of rage, trying to get out of those ropes and help me. Kyle sat there with no expression. I don't think he cared all that much.

"_Stupid Kyle, can't he help?_"

"_Iggy! I can hear your thoughts!_"

"_Rina! Are you okay?_"

"_What do you think?_"

"_Right, sorry. Can you get me out?_"

"_I dunno, this is pretty much the first power I get- ow, another gut punch._"

"_Gut punch? He's going down._"

"Hey Ari 2." I tried to sound brave and fierce, but it came out as more of a whimper.

"Hm?" he pretended to sound interested as he gave me another chest punch. Strangely enough that one didn't hurt as much. Was my body healing? I thought I could feel my ribs realigning.

"Think fast!" before it sank in I kneed him in the shins, punched him in the face, and plowed him over as I started running. My super speed was with me, so I circled the room a few times and then jogged up the stairs to try the lock. A surge of electricity ran through the bolt and I was blown back onto the cement floor. Great, just great, more genie repellants. Just what I needed.

"Did you just try to run away from me?" Ari 2 stepped up to me calmly as I lay on the floor again. He pressed his boot to my throat. "See, that's the mistake you always make. You always attempt to escape your problems by running from them. You should learn that your past is always going to catch you. I'm always going to catch you." He pressed a little harder and hit a pressure point. My body couldn't take any more, and I drifted into unconsciousness.

**POV Iggy**

From the sounds that followed Ari 2's little speech, Rina just passed out. That evil little clone of an eraser (I'm running out of names to call him) caused Rina so much harm she passed out! He is so dead. As soon as I get out of these stupid ropes I am going to wring his neck and knock him out, and maybe I'll also make a little bomb and stuff it down his shirt…

Ari 2 walked over Rina's body (you pick these things up after being blind for so many years) and sauntered towards us. "Well now, we all know the way to wake up Sabrina-"

"Rina." Someone had to say it, and it sure wasn't going to be Rina, seeing as she was currently unconscious on the ground. So as her future husband I should stick up for her.

"It doesn't matter!" Ari 2 snarled.

"I think you're just jealous because Ari 2 doesn't have a nickname." I snickered. Sarcasm in the face of fear, that's me. Apparently Ari 2 had problems with this because the next thing I knew I was being pinned by the neck on the wall, Ari 2's breath blowing in my face.

"Since you have a big mouth, maybe you'll be the first to scream. Then she'll wake up to try and help you and we'll resume our little game. How's that sound?" That wasn't a question. That was a threat. I didn't say anything. If I did I'd wake Rina up, and Ari 2 would continue to torture her. I couldn't let that happen. Her screams haunt me.

"Ah, you're learning." I barely heard this through the sudden burst of pain erupting in my body. I was on fire, and bullets were going through every bit of me. And the worst part was in my head. Ari 2 decided to add some images since I couldn't see, and they were all pictures of the flock, dead and bleeding on the floor. Max? Dead. Gazzy? He's gone too. Fang? His neck had a noose around it, what does that tell you? Angel, Nudge? They died together, apparently, and Total was still in Angel's arms. And Rina. Rina stayed a second longer than the rest of them. It was pure agony to see her sprawled out on the floor, pain on her face and blood in her hair. I almost screamed. But I remembered that Rina was right here in the same room, and she shouldn't hear me scream. So I bit my lip so hard it started bleeding and tried to ignore the visions.

"Come on, Iggy. You know this will happen. Best accept it while you can." Ari 2's voice was like honey. Poisoned honey. I just bit my lip even harder (it was getting pretty numb) and tried to look away. But I couldn't. I'd never be able to escape from my mind. I was slipping. Just barely, but I was slipping into Ari 2's clutches. He could be right. He's got all the powers. He could win. I almost let my scream slip, when-

BOOOOOOOOM! Holy crap, what was that? From the sounds of it people were running into the room. Light people, five of them. I could hear orders being shouted.

"Syd, Shell, Zak, untie them. Newt, heal her. And hurry!" Demi? What was Demi doing here? And why was she using their real names? How could Dylan heal someone? And who were Syd and Shell? I felt slight tugging at my blindfold, and it slipped off as the hands got to work on the handcuffs. I turned around to see Tara untying my bonds with huge concentration. Skye was working on Kyle's next to me while Taylor watched.

"Tara?" I croaked. She looked up briefly.

"Well, you heard Tali use my real name, so just call me Syd."

"And I'm Shell." Skye added. Well, now we know all their names.

"Right." I paid no attention to that and looked around. "How's Rina?"

"See for yourself." Taylor (yes, I'm still using their fake names) nodded towards a corner of the basement, near the stairs. Rina was sprawled out on the floor, bleeding, just like the vision Ari 2 gave me. But unlike the vision, Demi was standing facing Ari 2 and watching some sort of force field being projected around them while Dylan kneeled next to Rina's body, held his hands out, and looked like he was trying to heal her. _Force field? Healing?_ But…how? Ari 2 tried to get closer to them, but the force field blocked him from getting any closer than ten feet.

"Come on Newt, wake her up!" Demi worried. "I can't hold this forever!" She was the one making the force field? No, it couldn't be. Or could it?

"I'm not so good at treating these types of injuries, Tali! Snapped bones, powers barely stable, lot's of bleeding, we're lucky she isn't dead!" Dylan snapped back, waving his hands and trying to make something happen. Uh, doesn't healing normally require a first-aid kit or something?

"I think I've got something…" Dylan murmured. Rina's bleeding was stopping, and some of her bones were straightening out, but how? He couldn't have powers, could he?

Rina's eye snapped open and she sat up. "What are you doing?" she fired at them, full spirited. Dylan looked surprised and extremely pleased at the same time. Demi just looked at Rina.

"Never mind that, just take care of Ari 2!" Demi snapped back to business. Rina stared at her blankly. "Trying to read my mind?" Demi asked.

"Yeah. What are you all doing here? Iggy, you're okay!" Rina noticed me and tried to get over to me, but Demi stopped her.

"Normally I'd let you celebrate all you wanted with Iggy, but there's still the matter of Ari 2!" Sure enough, Ari 2 was trying to ram through the force field as Demi spoke, looking frustrated that he couldn't get to Rina. Take that, you stupid, evil- oh, wait, some people shouldn't hear me say certain words.

"What? Where'd the force field come from?" Rina finally noticed the light-blue dome that covered her from her attacker.

"You mean you're not doing this?" I called over to her, since Zak and Kyle were keeping me from running over to them. Ari 2 remembered that I was here, and charged towards me like an angry bull that just saw a red flag. I shielded my head with my arms, but he never came. I opened my eyes slightly to see Ari 2 ramming into yet another force field that protected us. How did these keep coming up? I glanced at Rina, and she shrugged.

"I'm not the one making these force fields!" she said.

"Then who is?" I asked.

"That would be me." Demi answered the both of us. We looked at her like she was crazy. "And since you don't seem to want to do anything about your attacker…" she reversed the force field so it disappeared from over and surrounded Ari 2. Except this time it wasn't a dome. This one had him suspended in the air so that he couldn't escape. Ari 2 looked kinda pissed to be locked up, so he started using his powers to cause chaos. Shelves of wine were suddenly knocked over like dominoes, wind was blowing everywhere, almost knocking some of the little kids off their feet, and fires burst at random points. Ari 2 also tried to make clones to cause more damage, but they all just stayed in the force field, which almost squished him.

"Whoa. Didn't see that one coming." I muttered to myself.

"You got that right!" Rina yelled over to me through the wind as she enforced the force field. Demi's didn't look too stable at the moment, barely enough to keep him in.

"Newt!" Demi called over to Dylan, who was currently dodging some flying crates of brandy.

"What?" he bellowed as he rolled beneath another crate.

"Start the laser vision to his heart!"

"I'm kinda busy at the moment!" he had super speed, apparently, because suddenly he was standing next to me.

"Iggy, cover him!" Demi shouted as some shards of glass bottles cut across the cellar, straight for Dylan. I grabbed a nearby crate lid and caught them point first before they could get any closer.

"It won't work!" Dylan tried to correct her. "He won't die!"

"Yes he will!" Demi shrieked as Kyle grabbed Dylan's arm, twisted it behind him, and forced him forward. Where did he learn to do that? "Newt, he's free, if you use the laser vision he'll die!" I thought I heard her say as I kicked through some more crates headed for them and squished a few snakes that Ari 2 decided to make after the flying crates weren't helping. Dylan realized that his sister was probably right, and red lasers beamed through his eyes and deflected off the force field.

"There needs to be a hole for him to- eek!" Rina got halfway through her sentence before she saw some loose shelves flying towards her and remembered to duck.

"You make the hole, you're more experienced!" Demi called back. A tiny hole appeared right over Ari 2's heart and Dylan's laser vision got through and started frying through Ari 2's shirt. Once it hit the skin he cried out and tried to deflect it. Dylan just made it stronger so it burned through anything he held up.

"It's working!" Demi encouraged. "A little more!" But Ari 2 got smart, and made himself transparent. The laser vision hit at the other end of the force field, ricocheted through where Ari 2's chest used to be, and would have went out the hole and right at me if Rina didn't close it just in time. Instead it bounced against the walls of the sphere like a laser show. Ari 2 looked kinda weak from already being burned, but he smiled evilly as the lasers went right through him. Dylan was about to say something in defeat, but Demi held up a finger.

"Wait. Give him ten more seconds." I could almost hear Zak counting by Mississippi's as the laser continued to bounce around. Ari 2 wobbled a little bit, his smile fading, and by Zak's tenth second he collapsed completely. I looked at Rina, and she explained.

"The damage made him unconscious. His heart is literally torn, but he could heal at any moment, given the time."

"No, keep watching the laser." Demi corrected. She could tell the future too? Never mind. We kept watching the red laser rebound off of every wall it hit. Then something amazing happened. It was kinda like a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing. The laser's last hit angled it to hit the very top of the field, so when it bounced off the top it went straight down and through Ari 2's heart, just as he was healing. Because of the speed built up from the bouncing it just went straight through his body. If that didn't kill him then nothing would.

"Congrats." Kyle broke the silence by patting Dylan on the back. "Your first murder."

"I didn't- oh, wait, I did. I killed a guy!" Dylan couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, but he deserved it. He was really mean to everyone." Skye piped up.

"And besides, Tali kinda helped because she helped with the force field." Tara added.

"We all killed him." Rina corrected everyone. "But that doesn't matter now that he's dead. What I want to know is what are you all doing here? And how did you get powers?" She asked everyone and eyed Dylan and Demi, the people with the powers.

"You saw nothing." Kyle's tone was like ice, and it was very fierce, but it didn't change our minds.

"We're not stupid. Of course we saw." I matched his tone, ready for some answers.

"Cool it, Jake, we all know I'm the only one who can make them forget." Dylan told him.

"You have that power too? What is this world coming to? How did you get your powers, why did you hide them from us, and why did you save us? And don't even try making us forget, because apparently you don't want us dead, which is your only other option if you don't want to tell us! We. Want. ANSWERS!" Rina snapped. I would have said she lost it if I didn't agree with her wholeheartedly.

"I know you're upset, Rina, but-" Demi tried to calm us, but Rina interrupted.

"Don't even think about sweet-talking your way out of this, young lady! We want answers, and we want to know everything!"

"Fine, then, let's review what you already know." Dylan smirked.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"It's something." Rina was still fuming.

"Well, it's just that when you called Tali 'young lady' and said all that other stuff you sounded just like the you we know." Dylan referred to Rina's latest speech.

"And what me do you know?" Rina looked a little lost.

"To answer that you'd have to know who we are." Demi spoke up.

"Well then tell us! Who _are_ you?"

**Hehehe, I love cliffies! They're a great way to end a chapter, in my opinion. I can't just make everything sound okay, then you'd think it was the ending and I wouldn't get as many reviews! Plus if I took this chapter to kill Ari 2 **_**and **_**explain who they are it would be a very long chapter that had more than one main idea. **

**So any guesses as to who they are? I've got one person who figured it out and one person who knew before I started this story, I just want to see if anyone else knows. Any guesses?**

**And please review, you know they make me update faster! For those of you who don't know how to review, as this is possible, you look at the bottom of this screen, and on the left there's a menu. If it says "Submit Review" all you have to do is press the purple-ish button next to the menu. A window will pop up. This is normal. In the space they give you, type what you think about this chapter, and press the submit button at the bottom of the little window. And sooner or later you will check your email and see one from me, thanking you for your review! That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Please do it! They make me feel so happy and I do my happy dance! I should probably make up a review dance that gets me more reviews. Well, I could do that or I could update my chapter while waiting for your opinion on this one. But please review!**


	13. Relief and Revealing

**Well, here's to the reviewers, Maximum Ride all the way, Evil Angel of DOOM, ghj1, ISing4Him, Bubble Blower (our hundredth reviewer!), maxride08, DarkBlade98, silvershadow37 (congrats again on figuring out!), hahahehe7, MaxRideNut (who also got it!), xxApocalypsexx, and Katie-3llen! Plus here's to missCeilidh and ISing4Him for reviewing in various chapters! You always make my day a lot better, and I thank you for it! Yeah, I don't have a lot to say today, I just wanna save room or whatever for when I write the explanation. Now you shall know who the hell these kids are! I shouldn't deny you your explanation with random author's notes. So here it is. Enjoy!**

**And just because I feel like it, DarkBlade98 gets a paragraph all to himself because he helped me edit this chapter! I was kinda feeling unsure about this because it might be too much info for you but DrakBlade98 helped me out. So everyone give him a round of applause, I don't care if it gets you weird looks, just start clapping!**

**Disclaimer: I can't remember, did I forget this last chapter? Oh well, you know I don't own it. But if this applies to the rules of crushes, if I'm denying it, that might mean I'm lying and I actually own it! But why am I still living with my parents if I'm making money off of those Max Ride books? Maybe my house burned down? And why don't people want my autograph? Why would I even want to write my name? I mean, my cursive sucks and it takes me forever to write! Maybe I should practice my autograph for when I really am rich and famous. But didn't I just say I was rich and famous from the Max Ride books? Does your head hurt yet?**

**Chapter Twelve: Relief and Revealing**

**POV…POV…ugh, I can't decide, time to bring out the POV-Picker! I knew I got this for a reason! And the POV is…Iggy! Gee, there's a surprise.**

Dylan and Demi sent each other meaningful glances. They looked kinda like Max when she was talking with the voice (who comes by on occasion whenever Jeb gets near enough). Maybe they could read minds?

"Do you really wanna know who we are?" Taylor asked us.

"Is the sky blue?" Rina asked in return, still scowling from lack of information. That's weird, she gave me the same look when I wouldn't tell her I was going to propose to her!

"Yes."

"There's your answer."

"Okay, we've made our choice." Demi said, and our heads snapped in her direction. "We'll tell you."

"Good. Let's hear it." I prodded them along.

"Okay, first we're going to go over what you already know." Dylan clasped his hands together like someone about to make a speech. Rina groaned.

"You're just stalling for time!" she whined.

"No, it just makes more sense this way. So you know that my name is Newt, but you think I'm Dylan. This is my twin sister, Tali, who you also call Demi. And over there are Jake, aka Kyle, his little twin sisters Syd and Shell, or Tara and Skye as you prefer to call them, and there's Zak, or Taylor, who isn't related to any of us. You know that you can't read our minds, we're not orphans, and we won't tell you who our parents are. You're also wondering why we're here. That all?" we nodded.

"Okay, let's build on that. Our full names are Newton, Natalie-" Tali growled at hearing her full name, not unlike Rina. "-Jacob, Sydney, Nichelle, and Zakary. Our fake names are actually our middle names, which we needed to use to fool you. We're here from the future to protect you and the rest of the flock."

"Liar." I said automatically. No one could come from the future. We'd have fewer disasters and problems if the people of the future cared about us.

"No, they're not." Rina cocked her head at them. "What year?"

"About fourteen years from now." Demi (okay, okay, Tali) informed her. We were silent for a moment.

"What's it like in the future?" I finally asked.

"You'll know soon enough. You'll be there." Newt (or Dylan) responded. "And you two will be together, since you're both wondering that." Rina and I looked at each other. How did he know that? "I can read and block minds, which is why you can't read ours." He responded to either our minds or our confused faces.

"How did you get to read minds?" Rina asked.

"I'll tell you in a sec. So we're here to protect you from Ari 2, and we also needed to get close to you and make sure things happen so then the future will be as nice as it is right now."

"But why would you care about us?" I blurted. "Seven lives wouldn't mean much to your futures, would it?" Apparently I hit the million dollar question, because suddenly they looked thoughtful. Not being able to take the silence, Zak (Taylor) spoke.

"Well, two of those lives would affect my future. Nudge and Gazzy are my parents. Well, they're my adopted parents, but if they didn't take me in I'd probably be dumped in an orphanage or something. I mean, if they didn't live here because they were dead or away or something then Mr. Denton would just take me to an orphanage because I'd remind him of his girlfriend who really had Uncle Fang. And even if he knew Uncle Fang lived he'd already have an heir so there'd be no reason to keep me unless mom raised me and married dad and-" Syd and Shell both put their hands over his mouth to shut him up. It all made so much sense now, I mean, he's a motormouth, probably from being raised by Nudge, and he's the spitting image of Gazzy except he's also got Nudge's skin.

"Wait a sec, if you're adopted them how come you look so much like Gazzy and Nudge?" Rina asked.

"Well when Aunt Nudge took Zak in he already had Uncle Gazzy's hair and eyes and Aunt Nudge's skin. But to make him more like their kid you gave him wings, Uncle Gazzy's voice mimicking, and Aunt Nudge's touch and know power." Shell explained, her hands still on Zak's mouth.

"Uh, okay, then. Never thought Gazzy would raise a kid." I was kinda creeped out. Gazzy has a kid? Nudge I could understand, but Gazzy? Never struck me as much of a fatherly figure.

"Actually he's a pretty good dad." Zak piped up after ducking under Syd and Shell's hands to speak.

"And you read minds too?" I asked.

"No, Newt told me." Newt grinned apologetically. "And dad's actually a really good dad, he taught me how to blow stuff up and fly and mom did the actual taking care of me like teaching me how to talk and feeding me and changing me and putting me in school and-" Syd and Shell once again caught up to him and shut his mouth.

"Well, that explains a lot." Rina said.

"No kidding." I agreed. "What about the rest of you?"

"We're Max and Fang's daughters." Syd and Shell said at the same time.

"Really?" Sure, I believed them, but Shell seemed more like a mini Angel to me.

"I'm not Aunt Angel's daughter, but I spend a lot of time with her while Syd learns how to fight from mom." Shell told me. "And Newt told me you were thinking that."

"I guessed as much. But how could you be Max and Fang's daughters? There's not much of a resemblance." Rina inquired.

"We have mom's hair." Syd told her.

"And dad's eyes." Shell added.

"And our wings are a mixture of theirs!" they finished together.

"Wings?" I asked.

"Well, yeah, when you combine two bird people you get more bird people, which means the other bird people get wings too." Tali explained.

"Wanna see?" Syd and Shell asked at the same time.

"Uh, sure." This I had to see, wings that belonged to people other than the flock. Their tuxes and dresses apparently had holes in them already, because the second I agreed, six pairs of wings were staring back at us. Zak's looked just like Nudge's tawny brown ones, and Syd and Shell were true to their word when they said they had Max and Fang's wings. They had nice blends of brown, white, and black, and they were identical to the last feather. The wings Jake showed us were completely black, just like Fang's, except for some brown feathers at the tips. Newt and Tali had whitish brown wings. The colors would be nothing special if you haven't seen the flock's, but if you have then you'd be really freaked out by how alike their wings were to ours.

"Iggy!" Rina nudged me.

"What?"

"Pull out your wings."

"Why?"

"I want to compare." I obeyed hesitantly, then stretched my wings out through the holes Rina provided. It felt so good after some-odd weeks of keeping them in! She took one of them in her hand, held it up delicately, and looked at the six kids in front of us. After a second or two, she let go and I pulled them back in.

"And your conclusion is?" I asked her.

"Newt and Tali's wings look just like yours."

"Not always!" Zak blurted. We turned to him.

"Huh?" Rina and I said at the same time.

"Show them the wing thing, Tali!" he requested. Tali rolled her eyes.

"Why should I?" She snapped.

"Because it looks so cool, that's why!"

"C'mon, Tali, you've been doing this since five minutes after you were born, why won't you do it now?" Newt prodded.

"Because they're here." She nodded towards us.

"All the more reason to do it, then." Newt said. "Come on, why not?"

"Fine." Tali groaned. Her wings suddenly turned into an array of colors, from red to purple, blue to yellow, and some colors I think I may have only seen once or twice. Some of the more golden-colored ones looked weird near the neon-greens, but it was still outstanding! The little kids oohed and ahhed, Newt and Jake were nodding with small smiles on their faces (even Mini Fnick!), and even Rina looked amazed.

"I've only seen that a few times." She murmured. "I forgot how beautiful it looked."

"Thanks. Am I done now?" Tali blushed.

"No, now you gotta suck them into your back!" Zak protested. Tali's wings shrunk into her back, and then they grew out again, like one of those speeded-up movies of a tree growing.

"Now am I done?"

"Just that feather thing, and then you can stop." Zak bargained. Tali sighed, and then every other feather on her wings became transparent. It was kinda cool to see the cement walls through one spot and the texture of the feather in another. Then before they could say anymore she folded her wings against the holes in the back of her dress. The rest of the group did likewise.

"So now do you believe us?" Syd and Shell asked at the same time.

"You're definitely Max and Fang's daughters. But what about Jake, Newt, and Tali?" Rina asked.

"I've got Fang's hair, Max's eyes, both their wings, and you call me Mini Fnick, so what does that tell you?" For once this came from Jake. I stared at him with wide eyes. He could speak? I thought he became mute sometime when he was serving us. But that just might be Fang's genes at work.

"I didn't loose my voice." Jake told me. Did he not talk because he could read our minds? "No, Newt's the only one who can read minds. But I'm perfectly capable of speech, I just never wanted to. I always give away info whenever I talk. Almost blew it with dad, but I couldn't stop talking." Jeez, would surprises never cease? For once he actually spoke an entire paragraph. And he said he couldn't stop talking with Fang? I wish I saw that!

"So Mini Fnick actually is Mini Fnick?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, and that time you asked if you could call me Mini Fnick was actually the beginning of a family tradition because when I was born you used your nickname for the servant, aka me, to nickname me."

"Interesting." Rina said. "Why didn't we see it before?"

"Newt blocked you from figuring it out." Jake nodded at Newt. "And you already know he blocked our minds. He also should have blocked the lie detector, but we thought you wouldn't use it."

"So why could I read Tali's mind that one night?"

"Because I was asleep. My blocks don't work when I'm asleep because I'm still learning how to use my powers." Newt explained himself.

"Another question. Why would a thirteen-year-old heir to a huge fortune spend time with his little twin sisters, a nine year old, and two other thirteen-year-olds and go back in time to make sure his parents got together?" I asked. "Or are you even an heir?"

"Yeah, I'm Jake Denton, heir to the Denton fortune. And I could, so I did. Plus we weren't just getting mine together. Theirs too." Jake informed me.

"Which brings us back to the parents thing. Who are your parents?" Rina asked Newt and Tali. Newt slapped his forehead, and Tali raised an eyebrow.

"This is where it gets tricky." Newt drew in a breath while rubbing his hands together.

"Are you sure you even want to know?" Tali asked.

"Well, we got to know who their parents are, so our data set wouldn't be complete unless you told us yours." Rina reasoned.

"I know, but you'll find out soon enough. Are you sure you want to know in advance?" Tali wondered.

"You said one day we'd find out everything. Today is one day, so tell us everything." Rina was growing impatient.

"Iggy?" Tali almost pleaded. "Do you?"

"You know I do." I don't understand, why was she so reluctant to tell us?

"Fine. You tell them." Tali nudged Newt.

"Why me?" he moaned.

"Because you did a great job telling them everything else. Now spill." Newt grumbled a bit, then started.

"Okay, so you know how we have powers?" we both nodded. "Here's a newsflash for you: we each have half the powers ever thought of. Any guesses based off of that?" Rina and I just stared blankly at him. "Okay, maybe not. So here it is: we're your kids."

Oh. Our kids? I have a son and a daughter? How could it be possible? I never thought…wow, I have kids. And Rina is their mother? Possibly, I mean, Tali looked like Rina so much it's scary, and even Newt looked a bit like Rina, or maybe Matt. And they had powers. Powers were genetic? But…how? I never thought I'd have kids. If Max's voice were here he's probably say something like "we all have to grow up sometime". But the only voice in my head was Rina, and from the looks of her she was too deep in thought to talk, so I just stared at them, trying to figure out how they could possibly related to me.

"Do you really need more proof, dad?" Newt raised an eyebrow. He just called me dad. Weird. "I mean, we're here to protect all of our parents. Zak has Aunt Nudge and Uncle Gazzy as parents, Jake, Syd, and Shell have Aunt Max and Uncle Fang, and we're not related by blood to any of them, so that leaves one couple for us to belong to. Our wings look just like yours, my hair, eyes, and skin tone are yours too, and Tali is the spitting image of Rina. Tali almost said a word that starts with 'm' when Rina came into our little bedroom that one night, which was probably supposed to be 'mom'. And our names are Newt and Tali Griffiths. So what do you think?"

"Okay, that's some serious evidence. Are you really sure you're our kids?" I broke through my little wall of silence just enough to ask.

"Positive." Tali told me.

"What do you think, Rina?" I turned to see her still thinking. I waved my hand in front of her face and she blinked and turned to look at me.

"Huh?"

"I said do you really think they're our kids?"

"I think it was only too obvious if you looked hard enough."

"Huh?" Everyone, and I mean everyone, said at the same time. I gave them a weird look. Shouldn't they know?

"She does this all the time in the future, too." Tali assured me.

"I don't get it, we blocked all the evidence we could." Newt reflected. "How was it so obvious?"

"Well, I couldn't read your minds, and the most likely reason is because a mind is developed farther than the average mind. Since that didn't seem to be true for all of you, assuming you each only have half the knowledge in the world, the other option must be that they were being blocked. So the person blocking it must be with you guys all the time to block it in surprise visits, which means it would have to be one of you." She gestured to the six of them.

"Plus even your fake names had some hints in them. Dylan means sea in Welsh while Demetria is Greek for the goddess of the earth, and the nickname, Demi, is French for half. Sea and land are opposites and yet they cooperate, which means you two are opposites in powers and interests and yet you get along. And since Demi means half then Tali must have half of my powers." And that, everyone, is why Rina is one of the smartest people I have ever known. I'm not even sure a history major/genie expert would have figured it out.

"You really _are_ our mother." Newt said.

"Is this a good thing?" Rina asked.

"Yeah. Mainly because when dad was secretly teaching me bombs with Uncle Gazzy you caught us just by using logic."

"But in this case it was a good thing we learned bombs." Zak corrected. "Otherwise we'd never be able to get in here."

"Okay, then. So they're our kids. Right?" I just had to check one more time with Rina.

"Right. Newt looks just like you." She commented.

"Yeah, it is a bit surprising. Plus the fact that there's two of us is a shock." Tali told us.

"What do you mean?" Rina asked.

"Actually, that's a story for another time. It has yet to happen. For now, we've told you all you need to know. You should probably be getting married about now." Tali rushed us.

"Oh, right, we still need to get married. Is that why you asked if I was nervous?" I asked Newt.

"Yeah. I mean, it would kinda be bad for our existence if you chickened out." He responded.

"Is everyone still looking for us? How long did we take?" Rina started to panic.

"It's okay, mom. We took a few hours, but I froze time when you first went down here." Tali eased her.

"But we're kinda bloodied up here." I reminded them of the mini battle we just fought.

"Oh, yeah, that. Well, how about we heal you and get you ready so it looks like nothing happened?" Newt offered.

"That'd be great, thanks." Rina grinned. All of a sudden she was standing in the same dress Max wore at her wedding. But this was different in some strange way. It flowed over her flawless skin perfectly, almost making her glow. She blushed, which only made me look at her more.

"Save it for the wedding, okay? We've got work to do." Jake interrupted.

"He's right. Newt, start healing the scars. Jake, Zak, start making this place look like nothing happened. Syd, Shell, I know you want to do mom's hair and makeup, so get started. I'll move the body and take care of clothing. Everyone clear?" they all nodded and started doing their assigned tasks. Newt came over to me and began taking care of some of the cuts.

"She's like a Mini Max, isn't she?" Rina joked from next to me.

"Yeah, and I bet she's destined for Mini Fnick, too." Newt commented before I could agree. A piece of wood flew over from the stairs hit Newt in the back of the head, and I looked to see Jake giving Newt the evil eye. Newt shrugged.

"What? You know it could be."

"Shut _up_, Newt." Jake turned and started picking up more rubble. Newt grinned evilly and sealed another wound on my arm.

"So if Tali's a Mini Max and Jake's a Mini Fnick, then who are you?" I asked him.

"I'm Mini Iggy, aka Mini You. Shell is a definite Mini Angel, Zak looks and acts a lot like a Mini Gazzy, and I guess Syd is a Mini Nudge since she's good with computers and cooperates with Shell and all that."

"Who's Mini Rina?"

"Well, it's kinda a tie between me and Tali. Mainly Tali, though."

"Fair enough. Was she always the leader?"

"Always. Even though I'm the older twin and Jake is older than both of us by six months, we didn't really want to lead, so Tali got to. Plus she's got all the powers to help her lead."

"Okay then."

"Anything you wanna know about the future while Tali's not here?"

"Will we still live here?"

"Nope. You're getting a house as a wedding present, and it'll be right next to this place, so we'll live there."

"Will I have a job?"

"Yeah."

"And it is?"

"Bomb technician. It actually pays pretty good, not that we're really gonna care about that. But it explains things to the humans."

"Cool!"

"I'll say! Especially since sometimes Tali makes us invisible and you take us in and show us what you do. Zak always gets jealous, even though Uncle Gazzy works at the same place."

"Do you guys go to a public school?"

"Yeah, we all do. It's kinda cool, everyone likes us even though we haven't told them about the powers and the wings. But on the other hand we can't just say 'we're going to visit Mars over the weekend with our parents so could we please turn it in later?' They'd never believe us and we'd never be allowed to prove it. And you guys won't let me control the teacher's minds."

"Yeah, well, you can't blame us."

"Newt!" Newt jumped up when Tali said his name.

"What?"

"They need to find out the future for themselves! Jeesh, don't tell them everything!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." _See what I mean by leader?_ He sent to my mind.

"_Yeah, I see. Does she always do that?_"

"_Only when we're about to give away too much info. Better go, mom needs some more healing._" He walked away after that and tended to Rina's battle scars. Tali came up to me and started fixing some of the holes in the tux.

"Sorry about him. He's just glad that he finally gets to talk to you as our dad and not as our master. Like he doesn't do that enough when we visit you guys in our time."

"It's okay. Can't really blame you guys. Is it hard?"

"Kinda. It's easier for the rest of them to call you your name because you guys don't like to be called Aunt and Uncle and just make them call you Iggy and Rina. But it's more difficult for us because you don't look very different from you in the future, so it's easy to call you dad."

"Yeah, and it might be hard for us to call you your fake names, so now you're not alone."

"Well, I guess we could call each other our real names as long as no one else can hear us. There, done." She telepathically sewed together the last tear, dusted some dirt off of my shoulder, and stepped back. She nodded, pleased with her work.

"Nice." She approved

"Thanks."

"You should probably be getting upstairs about now and pretending nothing happened."

"You mean we can't even tell the flock what happened?"

"Well, you can tell them you killed Ari 2, but say Rina was the only one using powers, okay? And we weren't here."

"You know it'll be pretty hard for them to have us know but not everyone else, right?"

"Yeah, but we'll live." Syd and Shell came up next to Tali.

"Yeah, it's not the end of the world, I mean we visit you guys in the future every now and then so then we can call you mom and dad and Aunt and Uncle and all those names. And we also kinda like just being with each other every once in a while, well, besides the fact that our room is kinda tiny and it isn't even two rooms and Tali's still working on some of her powers so we can't expand it or anything and they don't give us a lot of food even though we eat more than regular humans just like you guys but it's still kinda nice because-" if you thought that was someone other than Zak you owe me ten bucks. And you owe me another ten if you didn't think that Syd and Shell were the ones blocking his mouth.

"We'll survive. We're old enough." Jake came up next to them. "Tali, body needs moving."

"Oh, right, better go get rid of it." Tali went to take care of Ari 2's dead body still lying on the floor.

"Okay, here's the plan. Mom, Tali and I are going to take you outside and start time in the garden, where we were before I told you where dad was. Dad, you go with Jake to wherever you were before you got captured. Syd, Shell, Zak, go to where you were before we got you. Everyone just continue what you were doing when Tali gets the time back. Okay?" Newt took over for a second as Tali made the body disappear and cleaned some of the bloodstains off of the floor. Everyone nodded and headed for the stairs. I waited at the top for Rina.

"See you at the wedding." I kissed her on the cheek before I left with Jake (better start calling him Kyle again, I suppose), leaving Rina blushing behind me.

**POV Rina (A/N I would have stopped it here, but you guys were so nice with the last chapter I think you deserve a bit of extra material for this one!)**

"See you at the wedding." He kissed me on the cheek and went down the hall with Jake, leaving me to blush next to Newt and Tali.

"See? He loves you." Tali said as we started down the hall.

"I knew that." I protested.

"We noticed. Remember when you guys were holding hands when I showed you to your room?" Newt reminded.

"Back when we thought you were just the servant kids who barely talked and didn't tell anyone but us what their names were? Yeah, I remember."

"Yeah, we knew just from that that you guys were serious."

"What makes you think we're serious?"

"You're wearing a wedding dress."

"Touché. Question."

"Yeah?" Tali asked.

"If you're really our kids, you'd have to be, what, forty percent human?"

"Yup, forty-nine percent genie, forty-nine percent human, and two percent bird."

"Wow. And how's that working for you?"

"It's okay." Tali shrugged. "We're probably the strangest hybrids those whitecoats have ever heard of."

"Oh, we told you about them?"

"Actually, no." Newt informed me. "None of you would say anything about them."

"Hmm. How come?"

"Something about children not being exposed to horrors like that. You wanna tell us anything?"

"Sorry kiddo, if my future self says you shouldn't then I probably shouldn't." I ruffled his hair, which felt so much like Iggy's that it was scary.

"Pay up, Newt." Tali held her hand out, and Newt grumbled and passed her a dollar.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"I bet that you'd tell us something. Tali bet you wouldn't. I don't know why I even bother to bet against Tali, she's the one who got to tell the future." Newt narrowed his eyes.

"Oh come on, you got mind reading, be happy that you know what everyone thinks!" Tali protested.

"Yeah, but without you we wouldn't even be here and mom and dad would be dead!"

"You got laser vision, I mean how cool is that?"

"But you can turn invisible!"

"Guys, guys, break it up!" I told them. "Do you two do this all the time?"

"Not really." Tali answered quickly.

"But we have a lot of fun having power face-offs for the kids." Newt added. Tali elbowed him and glared, so I suppose this is something I'm not supposed to know.

"So you guys are going to see your own parents get married?" I tried to change the subject.

"No, we're just here for some of those cheese cubes and half the wedding cake and then we're going to ditch you at the vows." Newt said sarcastically and I smiled.

"Sarcasm mixed with an answer, you really are Iggy's son."

"Yeah, and we're also yours, believe it or not. You seem pretty cool about the whole situation."

"Yeah, well, dad probably saw it coming, mom's probably glad she's got grandkids, Matt and Gina probably want a niece and nephew to influence, and Iggy…well, we're together."

"And we're living proof." Tali pointed out.

"So how long are you going to stay here, anyways?" I asked, since the topic was getting kinda awkward.

"As long as we need to." Tali said as briefly as possible.

"And how long would that be?"

"We don't know."

"Are you sure? I mean, you can tell the future."

"Can we not talk about this? We're here, anyways." We were in the gardens already? Wow, that was kinda quick.

"Why not?"

"You're going to hate the answer she'll give you." Newt advised.

"You know more than you should." Tali answered.

"Well, at least you rephrased it." I told her. Great, the universal answer.

"Yeah, and I'm going to translate for mom. Why do you always say that?" Newt asked her.

"Because she really does! People are going to wonder why she knows so much about us, and it's not good for our cover!" Tali told him. Yeah, she's the leader all right.

"But she could know more! It's not going to hurt anyone for her to know more."

"But she needs to find out for herself! She can't just know everything, then nothing would surprise her, and she might tell the others! I know it's nice to actually treat them as our parents, but you can't get used to it."

"Mom would never tell the others. Right mom?" Newt turned to me.

"But mom, what fun is it if you know everything that's going to happen?" Now they were both looking to me to settle their fight.

"Okay, you're both right. Newt's right because I'd never tell the flock and it wouldn't hurt for me to know more. But Tali's also right because it would be no fun to know everything that's going to happen, and I think I'd like to find out for myself." Okay, so I'm new at this mothering stuff, but apparently they thought my solution was a good one because they nodded, no harm done. Then I felt the breeze on my back and saw the flowers move, and I knew Tali just unfroze time.

"So anyways, I found Iggy with Kyle over by the wine cellar. No need to worry, they said they just needed some more plastic cups for the reception and then everything will be ready. Unless you're not ready?" Newt raised an eyebrow and winked at me as he pretended that nothing had happened.

"I think I'm ready." I played along. "Dylan, would you mind getting Matt and dad and taking them to their seats? I think we're ready to start." Newt nodded and started up the hill. I turned to Tali.

"Okay Demi, would you like to help me hunt down the girls and get them to their places?"

"Okay Rina, but we better hurry, I bet everyone's getting frustrated because they haven't seen Iggy yet." Tali took my hand and led me up the hill and into the mansion so that I could get married.

**ATTENTION FANFIC READERS: THIS IS NOT THE END. We've still got another chapter to go, and then the third one starts! Just because I'm so nice, right? Kidding! But there will be more, I promise!**

**And a little note, I didn't know how to end the chapter so I just did it this way. I guess it's better than a cliffie.**

**I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret: I am NEVER completely secure about posting a chapter. Some little part of me always thinks I made a mistake and everyone's going to be confused or I'm going to leave a question answered, or even if it's perfect I think not enough is going to happen or no one's going to review because they don't like it. But your reviews make me feel a lot better and more confident even if they point out that I made a mistake! The more confident I feel the sooner I post another chapter, so please review, they make me so thrilled!**


	14. Why Not?

**I know, I know, I haven't updated in forever. Kick me. I had writers block! But I really can't believe that this is the last chapter of Free Rina, that's actually kinda scary! But at least there's going to be a third one, and I've got enough story ideas to last me up until my sophomore year at college (because I write 'em one at a time), so I'm not going to stop writing unless some major catastrophe should occur that makes me unable to write or update. So have hope, as this is not the end, but the beginning! The beginning of Iggy and Rina's lives together, that is (sorry, Evil Angel of DOOM!).**

**Just a small note before the thank-you's, I would have updated much sooner but I kinda got writers block, and then once I recovered my dad announced we were going to Breckenridge for Oktoberfest (German festival, it's where the adults get drunk, the kids play around, and everyone dances and listens to folk music or something like that), and there's hardly any internet so I was in a really cool hotel without being able to access fanfiction. And then I had loads of homework, and I was also talking with people who write other fanfics, and that's very fun but it takes an eternity to send messages. And then I had more writer's block. Just imagine a whole bunch of excuses and that's what happened to me. Have mercy, I bring chapters!**

**Here's to the reviewers, Katie-3llen, xxApocalypsexx, ghj1, IssytheWriter, Bubble Blower, Maximum Ride all the way, hahahehe7, S. L. Michaels, DarkBlade98, and Evil Angel of DOOM! I never know how to thank people for a huge favor, so I always try and fail to do it anyways. Just…thanks! I guess the best thing is that I'm updating, so here you go and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: never ever ever ever EVER assume that the person owns something just because they talk about it all the time and make stories based off it. So let's think: do I talk about Maximum Ride all the time? Yes. Do I make my own versions of it? Yes. Therefore, do I own it? No. Glad you understand. But I do have fantasies where James Patterson finds out about Rina and everyone's kids and likes them…but who doesn't? I'd be glad just to meet him! Oh, and same goes with songs I'm going to mention, I don't own them though I use them in my fics, but I still think Max Ride fantasies are better than meeting a singer! I mean, just today I had a fantasy where…yeah, I'm rambling, aren't I? On with the chapter then!**

**Chapter 13: Why Not?**

**POV Rina**

We were headed up the hill to get everyone when Newt slowed down to get next to me.

"_Mom?_"

"_Yeah?_"

"_I was wondering, could you promote Tali from usher to bridesmaid?_"

"_What? Why?_"

"_I kinda have access to her mind twenty-four seven, and I kinda overheard her wanting to be a bridesmaid. She just didn't ask herself because she thinks she'd be getting too involved. But she'd actually be pretty good, and she needs to not lie low for once._"

"_You're a good brother, you know that?_"

"_No I'm not, I just think she deserves to get out and be something besides Miss Camouflage. She's always blended in, so just make her a bridesmaid and do something good for her._"

"_Fine, she can be a bridesmaid. And you and Jake want to be ring bearers?_"

"_What the? How did you know that?_"

"_Well now that I know you're blocking your minds, I can hack into your minds and just barely read them. Mind reading is my superpower, remember?_"

"_Right, right. So can we?_"

"_Sure._ Tell Iggy I said yes, okay?" I said the last sentence out loud since we were at the point where Newt had to leave.

"Okay, I will. Thanks Rina!" Newt waved goodbye and started down the hall.

"What did you say?" Tali asked me.

"I said yes to him and Kyle being ring bearers. We don't have one anyways." As nice as their fake names are, I will never get used to them now that I know their real ones! Funny, you'd think we've known them by their fake names until half an hour ago and we'd want to keep using them, but it's like deep down we knew the names all along and now we want to use them as much as possible.

"Oh, okay."

"And I also said you could be a bridesmaid."

"Huh? How'd you know?"

"Let's just say Newt is a very good brother. Now could you hold still a moment? It's hard to get you in a dress when you're moving." She froze and I poofed her into a matching blue and white dress. Once she was ready, she turned and gave me a hug.

"Thanks."

"No prob, kiddo. You might want to thank your brother, though." I stroked her hair, and she only squeezed harder. I probably hugged her just like that in the future.

**Later**

Oh. Their. Human. God. This was so freaking scary! Now I know completely how Max felt when she got married to Fang, I mean, I'm making a lifelong commitment here! And in front of my friends and family, too. I clenched a little tighter to the curtains separating us from the wedding. If getting married doesn't rip your nerves from you and trample all over them I don't know what will.

"_And yet you face an evil genie/eraser fearlessly just to save your spouse. Jeez mom, you're insane!_" Perfect, just perfect, Newt heard my thoughts.

"_You know I'm still getting used to you calling me mom, right?_"

"_Yeah, I know. I bet you're still getting used to talking to me in your mind too?_"

"_You have no idea._"

"_Look, just relax, okay? It'll all be fine, you're not going to get divorced or anything._"

"_That's not what I'm worried about._"

"_Huh? I thought you were worried about how the marriage would turn out._"

"_Nope._"

"_What then?_"

"_I dunno, I guess I'm just freaked that I'll trip on the aisle again or goof when I'm dancing or something._"

"_Oh, sure, get worried about tripping in front of some people. You should be more worried about whether or not Ari 2 had backup._"

"_Which one of you got my clumsiness? Because I know one of you did. And why should I be worried about Ari 2? He's dead._"

"_Tali got clumsiness. She handles it pretty well, though. And of course you should worry about him, he could have told anyone his secrets!_"

"_Yeah, sure, because knowing Ari 2 he thinks he's going to die soon and needs to prepare and tell one of his brainless henchmen all his secrets._" I'm not sure if Newt's powers were developed enough to hear my sarcasm.

"_Ha ha, very funny. Come on, mom, you know something could happen._"

"_Would you happen to know if it's going to happen during the reception? Because if there isn't going to be a distraction from my slow-dancing then I'll have to make one._"

"_Mom!_"

"_Okay, now you're sounding like a dad and I'm the kid._"

"_Scary. But you're new at this parent thing, so I'll forgive you._"

"_Gee thanks, I feel so much better. Gotta stop talking now, it's about time to get started._"

"_Fine. Dad sends his love or something like that._"

"_Tell him I left my heart with him._"

"_Tell him yourself! I'm not Cupid!_"

"_I dunno, messing with your parents and aunts and uncles to make sure they get together, I'd call that- oh, I need to go!_" Newt broke the connection as Angel and Gina walked side by side down the aisle. It was adorable, really, I mean the blonde curls (Angel), straight black strokes (Gina), and identical dresses looked so cute! Then it was Nudge's turn. She sped things up this time, just walking like she was following Tara to breakfast, except this time her back was actually straight. Tali sped things up even faster, and I don't believe she was the one to get super speed. Must be Iggy's genes. Max followed shortly after, beautiful as always (and I wrote that down!) in the maid of honor dress. In a way she looked kinda like when she got married. The wings were still standing out on her back, just like last time!

Suddenly the audience shifted in their seats ready for me to come out. I scanned the audience for a brief second. Mom and dad looked the most expectant, probably ready to see their little girl all dolled up in a wedding dress. Matt was ready to eat again, so he didn't seem to care one way or another. Max and Nudge were smiling at me, ready to see me trip again, most likely. Gazzy and Fang were just waiting for this to be over (those tuxes must be murder). Angel and Gina were both jerking their heads, motioning for me to hurry up, and Iggy was beaming into the shadows, waiting for me.

"_Look at grandma and grandpa._" Newt sent to my mind. Grandma and Grandpa? Oh, right, the parent thing (insert blush here). I gazed out the curtain and got a shock. Even Iggy's parents seemed ready to see me! Well, if his parents cared too…

I took a small step out on the carpet right as the music switched tracks, so it was like I had my own theme song as I walked. Everyone gasped, oohed, and ahhed, but thankfully no one fainted, so I wasn't hideous or anything. Mom looked like she was going to cry (hey, this is her first child to get married here, what mother wouldn't cry a bit?), everyone looked awed, and even Fang managed a small smile. I saw Newt and Tali watching from the side as I walked by them. Newt gave a small wave and Tali nodded once with a grin on her face.

And then I looked at Iggy and all was forgotten. Man, he looked amazing! I know I saw him earlier in his tux and all that, but this was different. Maybe it was just the lighting or the location or something, because I just couldn't look away from his flawlessness. I mean, what tux shows muscles beneath the sleeves? None but this, I'm betting. His hair was ruffled up, like he just landed from a flight (which I'll never tell, but that's the way I like it best), and yet he also looked like he could be an ambassador at a party or something. How did he manage that? Never mind.

I walked the last few steps down the aisle and stood next to Iggy, who was still looking at me in awe.

"_Hey._" I sent him a thought.

"_Hey yourself. Did you know that you look gorgeous?_" I blushed

"_Thanks. You're not so bad yourself._"

"_Thanks. Should we get this over with then?_"

"_We may as well give them a show._" Together we turned to face the priest guy, and he started the ceremony.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join-" oh great, we got the same guy as last time, when Max and Fang got married. And he forgot the names _again_. How does this guy keep coming up?

"Iggy." His parents frowned at the use of his fake name (I can see why Iggy doesn't like them so much), but my parents just smiled. He freed me and he's going to be their son-in-law, who cares what he's called?

"Rina."

"Very well, Iggy and Rina in holy matrimony. Crazy kids with such strange names, odder than those Max and Fang kids." He muttered the last part to himself, then began the poems and speeches and all the stuff we don't care about. I was actually going to sit through it this time until the vows came, but right at the third poem he started the familiar symptoms of being fast-forwarded! Everyone either laughed or looked confused (mainly laughed since my parents took the liberty of inviting some genies), and Iggy turned to me.

"Nice touch!"

"Uh, I'm not doing this."

"What? Who then?" We scanned the audience for people with particularly smug grins. But no one was, they were just laughing at how the priest guy sounded like a motormouth bug and yet hardly moved at all. Hey, it actually was kinda funny! The guy could be Fang if he wasn't talking so much.

"_Incoming message from Tali. Do you accept?_"

"_Hi Newt. Wouldn't I be able to talk to her myself?_"

"_No, actually, we need to keep our minds blocked for Aunt Angel and Grandma Stella and Grandpa Frank and all those genies who don't know us but could probably figure it out, so you can only talk if I connect you._"

"_Fine then, yes, connect us please._"

"_Hi mom!_" Apparently Tali was one of the laughing people.

"_You're the one who's speeding him up, aren't you?_"

"_Is it that obvious?_"

"_No, I'm just guessing here._"

"_Come on mom, you need it! Everyone was getting so bored, Zak was actually lying down on the floor to go to sleep! No one wants to sit through this._"

"_Do I sound like I'm mad? Good call!_" What? It was boring!

"Who are you talking to?" Iggy asked from next to me as the priest guy was slowing down. About time too, if he wasn't being sped up he would have been talking for hours now.

"Demi."

"And?"

"She says hi." "_She's doing it._"

"Well, okay then. Better pretend we were paying attention now." He noted just as the priest slowed to an almost normal pace.

"Do you, Iggy…"

"Griffiths." Iggy told him with a small scowl, while his parents smiled, happy that he used their name.

"Take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Ah, short and sweet.

"I do."

"Do you, Rina…"

"Bailey."

"Take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss." Well, I don't need any more notice than that! I won't give you any gory details, but we kissed, and it took a few minutes, but we were married, so we didn't care that everyone else saw. But when we finally broke apart (he needed air and I needed a break from his hypnotism), everyone was smiling at us in awe, or in Gazzy, Fang, and Jake's case, apathy. And Newt was pretending to choke and make Zak laugh, but we ignored him.

"Okay, reception time!" Iggy announced and everyone headed up the hill and inside the mansion just as the sun was setting. Iggy glowed in the red beams of sunlight, and I could have melted when he took me by the hand and led me into the mansion. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked me.

"Not in the slightest. We killed an evil clone. We found out we were going to have kids. And we got married. So it was a pretty cool day for us!" I went over the highlights of the day.

"Yeah, Newt and Tali are a surprise." He rubbed the back of his neck for whatever reason. "I wonder what they'll look like as babies."

"And I wonder who picked the names." I added.

"Actually, the name Newt always kinda interested me." he admitted. "I mean, the full name sounds like a smart person but the nickname sounds more like a lizard."

"Well I give you credit." I kissed him on the cheek. "Congrats, you have two children."

"Hey, they're yours too! And it's kinda weird, Max and Fang and Nudge and Gazzy don't really know their kids are so close to them already and yet we know the whole truth." He tried to change the subject.

"Yeah, it's not too fair, is it? I hope they'll tell them." By now we were at the top of the hill and at the door leading to the ballroom. He opened it for me, and I came face to face with the strangest party I have ever seen. When genies and humans combine it's not too pretty, especially when your parents think you're still friends with some snooty show-offs from high school who just love to mess with the human businessmen and their wives, and I don't mean by telling jokes. Plus this may not be a well-known fact, but genies also love to eat, so the genies that weren't on a diet they didn't need were gorging on food (needless to say, Matt was their king) over on the tables set out at the end of the ballroom facing the stage. The humans were trying to ignore the strange people morphing shapes and levitating things and just enjoy the reception themselves.

"Too…many…people!" Iggy pretended to choke.

"Hehehe! Seriously, you need any claustrophobia help?" I asked.

"That would be great, actually."

"Okay, here you go." I held my hand out to his face, and he became relaxed.

"Thanks." He sounded relieved and sent me a smile. If it weren't for his hand on my arm I would have fainted.

"Anytime."

"Ah, good, the bride and groom are here." We turned to the stage to see Tali looking towards us. We took that long? I mean, the band was already set up and Matt was full. Both take a pretty long time. "Would you be willing to start the music now?" We nodded, and the band started playing. Wait a sec, is this…?

"Ladies and gentlemen, genies, humans, and hybrids, the bride and groom will now have their first dance. This is 'Keep Holding On' by Avril Lavigne." Tali announced. Oh crap, the dance. I put my head in my hands and peeked at Iggy.

"Do I have to?"

"I don't mind if you say no, but I know a few people who will." Iggy nodded over to the head table, where Angel, Nudge, and Gina were waving at me and mouthing at me to hurry up at the same time. And between the three of them they wouldn't even have to lift a finger to make me dance. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be manipulated.

"Fine." I groaned, and Iggy smiled and led me to the dance floor. Great, everyone's looking right at the moment where I'll most likely trip. So comforting. Iggy put one hand on my waist and I put one on his shoulder, and together we figured out a position that looked somewhat like we were dancing to Tali's song. Well, okay, technically it was our song.

"_I wonder how they knew it was our song._" Iggy asked me (well, you know me, I kinda overheard him wonder and answered).

"_I don't know, maybe we mentioned it in the future?_"

"_Who knows. Hey, here's a crazy idea. This is our wedding day. How about we forget about the kids for a minute and just pretend we don't know?_"

"_I can live with that._" I placed my head on his chest, happy to just be there with Iggy. Sure, people were watching me, but whatever. If I goofed Iggy would help me up. I couldn't believe we were finally married!

**POV Iggy (A/N he may as well get to talk a little!)**

"_I can live with that_." Rina put her head on my chest (I swear she made a little indent because she leaned there so many times) and sighed. Hey, I can't blame her. Newt, Tali, kinda surprises. I just circled the floor and waited for our song to end. But Newt gave me a small smile when I glanced his way (what? I was wondering if he really looked like me!).

"_Congrats, Iggy Griffiths, you officially have the girl of your dreams married to you. What are you going to do next?_" Newt, always Newt.

"_Enjoy being married and kidless while I can?_"

"_Oh sure, forget all about your kids! Whatever, I've got my own plans._"

"_And what would they be?_"

"_Jake and Tali have gone long enough without each other, and that's all I'm going to say. And don't tell mom, she might get proud of me again._"

"_Uh…okay, not telling Rina._" Ignoring that. The song ended soon enough, and I looked up to see every eye on us. Oh crap, they saw everything! Thank god not a lot of people here are good at reading minds. Rina looked up, blushed, and we both went back to our seats to let some other people dance. But apparently it was toast time, because Fang climbed up onto the stage. What the? Fang was going to make the toast? I thought he liked being Mr. Tall, Dark, and Silent. But he opened his mouth and…

"Can I have some more of that shrimp stuff?" Everyone laughed at that. Of, course, typical Fang. Gazzy took the stage and handed Fang a plate of shrimp. This makes more sense, I mean I had two best men for a reason.

"Okay, thanks Fang. I'm not too good at making speeches, but I just want to say one thing before I get to the point." He paused and looked EXTREMELY nervous, kinda like he did when we were in the School way back when and every experiment had to leave their cage and the ones that came back were shivering and he was called to be next. Thank god it was only shots. But anyways, he looked about as nervous. Then he finally spoke. "Nudge?"

Nudge shot up from her slouch at the head table with a blush on her face that could probably warm Antarctica. "Yeah?" she breathed.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Holy. Freaking. Cow. Gazzy, the little trooper, one of the bomb experts of the flock wanted Nudge the Motormouth? I never thought he'd ask, he'd just keep it to himself because she might reject him now that she wasn't in danger and at the School. He seemed too shy to ask. But according to Zak's small cheer in the corner, it could be possible that she'd say…

"Okay, I'll be your girlfriend!" Nudge half shouted up to the stage. Gazzy grinned a huge grin, then remembered why he was up there on a stage standing in a tux that felt like fire ants were crawling all over it.

"Here's to Iggy and Rina." He held up a glass of cider to us, and everyone followed suit and drank up. "Okay, now that it's over you guys can continue playing." Gazzy wiped his mouth and hopped off stage to go join Nudge as the band went up and resumed playing.

The next song was called Why Not by Hilary Duff. Angel suggested this song because she liked it, and I don't think I've seen Tali sing her, so this ought to be interesting. Wait a sec, that's my daughter up there singing! And at our wedding! Scary. But when you know genies and you're a hybrid created by mad scientists anything can happen. And that's what makes it interesting.

My attention shifted to Max and Fang. Okay, is Fang getting some more of that shrimp? No, he left the plate, and he's offering Max a hand and saying something... Max is blushing, but she nodded and he pulled her to the…DANCE FLOOR? Holy crap, Fang and Max are going to dance when they don't have to! I nudged Rina.

"Get the video camera, Fang and Max are dancing." She giggled and made a video camera, setting it on the table to catch everything.

"Blackmail." She beamed as the song started. We watched Tali sing.

"You act like you don't know me when you see me on the street.

Making like I turn you off, when I know you think I'm sweet.

It don't have to be like that, I guess you're insecure.

If you say what's on your mind, I might answer sure.

So walk a little slower and I'll try and catch your eye.

Sometimes it's so hard to see the good things passing by.

There may never be a sign, no flashing neon light

Telling you to make your move when the time is right.

So why not

Take a crazy chance?

Why not

Do a crazy dance?

If you loose a moment

You might loose a lot

So why not?

Why not?" Okay, she's good. Where did she get a voice like that? Not me, I know it. Maybe Rina. But I scanned the rest of them. Newt, Shell, Zak, and what little I could see of Syd looked preoccupied, but they were doing their jobs well. But Jake was the funniest to look at, because he was staring straight at Tali! Wait a sec, Newt said something about Jake and Tali going long enough without having each other…no way.

"You're right, he does." Rina read my mind.

"He likes her?" My eyes widened and I couldn't help but smirk a bit. Sounds a load like Max and Fang.

"And she likes him, and her brother's going to do something about it." Rina nodded solemnly, then burst into a grin. "I swear, if he had a girl helping him it would be just like what we did!"

"Hey, you hang around your parents long enough and you start to think like them." I shrugged. "Look at Mini Fnick!" sure enough, when we looked up, Newt nudged Jake and he did a small solo, which gave Tali an opportunity to look him over. And the last note she sang in one verse was enough to make Jake forget completely about the guitar and just keep gazing at her with the exact same expression Fang had when he looked at Max.

"I can see why Newt's going to do something about it." Rina commented.

"Yeah, no kidding."

**A little later**

**POV Rina (A/N you never thought Iggy's POV was going to last, did you?)**

Oh crap, they found us. Iggy's parents waved us over from the refreshments table. I froze time, and Iggy and I exchanged glances.

"Do we have to?" Iggy whined.

"We may as well humor them a little. Otherwise they're never going to leave us alone." I prompted, put on a slightly fake smile, and unfroze time. Then we went over to them to wait this out.

"James, Rina, so nice to talk to you!" Iggy's mom said with a fake smile towards me. I could tell that she still wasn't comfortable with me, the stranger her son happened to be marrying.

"Mrs. Griffiths, I didn't see you!" I gave her a small hug. I've seen her with her friends (I was bored), and she likes to be hugged to trust someone. Surprised, she actually hugged back.

"Call me Ashley." She told me. Sweet, she was already warming up to me! **(A/N Okay, I don't know her real name, only Iggy's dad's name. So I made one up. Any problems with that? Thought not. But let's face it, I suck at naming people, I mean Tali isn't even a real nickname!)** "So we still have a few questions that we never got around to asking because you had to see your parents."

"Whom we met, by the way." Mr. Griffiths added. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm sorry they're so strange, they just really like their powers." I apologized.

"Oh, don't worry about it, dear. Your father actually told us some very interesting information about your future." Mrs. Griffiths (I know she told me to call her Ashley, but I don't care!) beamed right as Iggy groaned next to me.

"Great, just great, he told you." He moaned. Poor us, we have to stand through this stupid interrogation!

"Is it true you're going to have two children?" Mrs. Griffiths started firing at us. We both blushed. The flock had better not be listening in or so help me…

"Yes, Newt and Tali." Iggy told them with a face like stone.

"Who picked the names?"

"We don't know." I filled in.

"Well, are we going to get a lot of visits from Newt and Tali? I should hope we get to see our grandchildren." Mr. Griffiths asked. And we have to go through how much of this? Not much, apparently, because I felt a tug at my wedding dress and looked down to see Zak staring angelically at us (probably learned that from Angel). He must be on break with the rest of the band. Oh, right, forgot to mention that Angel suggested people doing karaoke, so they got a break to go get snacks and water, rest, and apparently talk to us.

"Yes, Taylor?" I asked, and Iggy snapped his head over to us.

"Can you two help us really quick?" We nodded right as soon as we understood that we were bailing out of this jail, excused ourselves, and followed him through the crowds to a corner where no one else could hear us.

"What's up?" Iggy asked.

"How much do you love your daughter?" Zak demanded. Iggy and I exchanged glances.

"I thought we were being saved from the awkward questions." I said.

"Okay, okay, bad way to start this. But we're bored because everything is going the way it should be, so now we're going to try and get Tali and Jake to dance but they won't cooperate so you guys are plan B could you possibly help us get them to dance because they really like each other and they ought to be together since Jake keeps staring at Tali and Tali keeps staring at Jake when he's not staring at her and they keep missing each other and they try to act all casual around each other so Tali thinks Jake doesn't like her in that way and Jake doesn't think Tali likes him in that way but they both really like each other and they don't see that the other likes them back so they should be happy together but they won't be because they don't want to be embarrassed and…why aren't you stopping me?" he looked at us weird.

"It works like this: you talk, we listen, we understand. Is this a surprise to you?" Iggy said impatiently.

"Yeah, kinda. I've always been blocked from saying more at some point. But forget about that, will you help us get them to dance?" Zak gave us Bambi eyes, which was useless because we already agreed.

"Is there a plan?" I asked.

"Yeah, Newt's got it, he can explain."

"Why did I not see that coming?" Iggy asked sarcastically. "Newt's got the plan, oh there's a surprise."

"You'd be surprised what your kids are capable of, I mean they always take charge and yet they're so cool and funny and all that. Okay, let's go find Newt." He dragged us away from our soundproof corner and stood about ten feet away from an impatient Newt and an extremely pissed-off Jake. He was still and silent for a few minutes (never thought it possible), then turned to us. "Okay, he's kinda busy with him, so I gotta tell you. I think the best thing you can do is convince her, like come in and say something like "what's going on?" and she'll tell you some protesting thing or a lie and could you help us convince her? When worst comes to worse you could just help us push her in his direction."

"How come you keep saying him and her instead of using their names?" Iggy asked Zak, noting that we haven't said their names much either.

"I can't remember which names to call them in public. Will you help?" We said yes at the same time.

"Okay, you stand over there, and when I start talking could you come over and just kinda ad-lib it or something because I just don't feel like making a plan and I don't have any ideas anyways?" Yes, yes, just get going already! He left and we waited for him to get in the conversation again.

"I can't believe we're playing matchmaker again!" I told Iggy.

"Yeah, we're so experienced they should start paying us to do this." He smirked back, then we approached the quartet.

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked Tali, Zak, Syd, and Shell like it was the most natural thing in the world to wonder about the servants. Zak owes us big time for this, we're missing out on enjoying our reception! But he did save us from Iggy's parents. We're even then!

"They want ME to dance with HIM!" Tali jerked a thumb over at Jake, who looked just about as fuming as Tali at the moment. They looked a lot like Max and Fang before they had their first kiss (the one Iggy and I helped with), which made a lot of sense!

"What? How come?" Wow, let's have a standing ovation for our best actor! Go Iggy! I took the liberty of complimenting him in his mind and he sounded proud but didn't blush or anything, which just gave him more credit.

"Some theory about me liking him, which I so do not!" Tali pouted.

"Hmm." I thought it through. She was pretty and smart and sweet (none of which were my traits, by the way), he was handsome and smart and silent (all Fang and Max), why not? "Maybe you should try it. How bad could it possibly be?"

"Catastrophic. I can't dance, and I won't try in front of all those people. And I'll never even think about it in front of him!" Who said she wasn't my daughter? Methinks someone hangs out with me often in the future.

"You know what? I've got something to show you. Might change your mind." Iggy told her. What the hell? Tali cocked her head. "Just walk in front of us so you have a better view and we'll show you." She consented, and everybody gave Iggy weird looks. "_Tell them I said for them to trust me, okay?_" Iggy asked me. I sent the word.

"_What do you think you're doing?_"

"_Zak said that when worst comes to worst, all they need is a little push. Connect me to Newt, please?_" I'd be lying if I said that didn't confuse me, so I just connected him to Newt's mind as best I could despite the block. And I couldn't help but eavesdrop just a little bit. "_Newt? Newt? Come in Newt, this is Iggy speaking!_"

"_Oh, hi dad, what's up?_"

"_I'm getting Tali towards the middle of the dance floor, would you get Jake near us so then we can push 'em together?_"

"_Aw man, why didn't I think of that? One sec._" I saw Newt steering Jake over in our direction.

"_Okay, as of now you are officially a genius._"

"_Thanks, Rina, but Genius needs to make this shot perfect, so could you help me with the timing?_"

"_Sure. Shoving in five…four…three…two…NOW!_" At that moment four things happened at once: Zak sneezed, Iggy pushed Tali straight in front of him, Newt pushed Jake head into Tali, and they both fell back onto the floor and rubbed their heads! If I blinked I would have missed seeing it, but the noises would have told me what happened all the same. Jake and Tali looked up to see what they ran into, and then they just kinda got relaxed expressions on their faces. Tali smiled that easy smile you would use if you were on painkillers, and even Jake managed to loose the mad look and give a tiny grin. Then all of a sudden, he spoke.

"Hey, wanna dance?"

"Okay." Jake stood, held out a hand to Tali, and got her on her feet. Since it was a slow song anyways, they did something similar to what me and Iggy were doing when it was our turn to dance. Wow, one look in each other's eyes and they couldn't say no!

"You're done now, go enjoy your wedding." Newt shooed us away.

"But I don't want to talk to my parents!" Iggy moaned. "You want us to enjoy it? Make them leave."

"Can't, that's Tali, and she's a little busy at the moment. Rina could help you, though."

"Yeah, come with me and we'll talk strategy." I led him away to our table, eager to get them out of the way.

**POV Newt (A/N yes, you're going to read Newt's POV for once! My suggestion: get used to it.)**

FINALLY, Jake and Tali danced! I'm brilliant, am I not? Okay, okay, dad's plan was good. But he wouldn't come up with it if the situation didn't call for it, and I made the situation! So I completely rule. And I'm so modest about it! It's just that Jake and Tali are very hard to convince, especially when it has to do with them, so the fact that we got them to dance should be in the papers, and when we actually get them together we upgrade to global T.V! I've already got an acceptance speech going for when I win the Nobel Peace Prize. (ahem) I'd like to thank my friends, Syd, Shell, Zak, and Maddy (uh…please, ignore the Maddy part, you have no clue who she is yet) for helping me accomplish this great deed, to those suckers at school, I TOLD you I'm awesome, and as always, thanks to mom and dad for being there and teaching me the important things like making bombs and flying and using my powers wisely. Okay, everyone's going to kill me for blowing our family secrets. But I got them to dance!

"Are you working on your acceptance speech again?" Zak piped up as we all watched Jake and Tali dance. Which reminds me…

"Yeah, just putting on the final touches. And pay up, Tali isn't tripping." Zak grumbled and passed me some prehistoric money. Well, we call it prehistoric because it's nothing like our money in the future, where the heads and the value indicators are projected into a hologram whenever you hold it flat. They're working on a talking dollar, but George Washington still won't stop talking about Sprite-Dew (the Pepsi-Cola wars part II), so they're working out some of the kinks.

"Why would you write an acceptance speech because you got them together?" Syd and Shell said and nodded over to Jake and Tali, who were still staring vacantly at each other.

"Because the Nobel Peace Prize selection team is going to end up in front of this mansion, if I have anything to say about it." I said tolerantly. It always freaked them out when I said in such a pleasant tone that I was going to use my powers for evil!

"Don't even think about it or we'll get your sister!" Syd and Shell blurted.

"Oh come on, blow up one wheel on their van when they drive near our place and that's all I'll do, I swear!" I love scaring them!

"Dylan?"

"Okay, maybe I might be outside when it happens." I pressed on.

"Dylan…"

"And sure, I could help them out of the car, maybe ask if they're okay, sound like I care, and if they don't ask for my story I could-"

"DYLAN!"

"WHAT?" I didn't hear whoever it was say my name until then (plus I'll never get used to these fake names), and I spun around to see Aunt Nudge raising an eyebrow at me with Uncle Gazzy right next to her.

"Are you scaring them?" Aunt Nudge asked.

"Nah, I was only messing with them. Why, are you messing with me?"

"Well, they look pretty freaked."

"Actually, freaking out kids is good for them. Builds character and all that."

"Well, if you're really sure. And Angel told me to tell you that you'll be up in a few minutes, so get Demi and Kyle and get going. Where are they, anyways? I haven't seen them in a while and- there they are!" Aunt Nudge scanned the crowd and then squealed. "They're dancing together, oh that's so cute! How did they get to dance together, I mean Demi's always seemed preoccupied with- OH, she was trying to avoid looking at Kyle! And Kyle doesn't talk much, I mean who wouldn't like a guy who doesn't talk much? Oh that's so cute, I need that camera I saw Rina make earlier, c'mon Gazzy, we gotta go find it!" Nudge forgot all about me messing with the kids and pulled Uncle Gazzy away to go find the camera mom made. Syd, Shell, and Zak all looked at me and I shrugged back.

"Better go get Romeo and Juliet and get playing." I started to take them up to Jake and Tali to see if we could pry them apart when something both amazing and frightening happened. "_Oh crap, why now?_" I thought as the white dove flew through the wall and towards mom and dad, who were just finished with cutting the cake. "_Why does the Genie Government have to let them know now? One more moment, that's all I ask!_"

"Come on, we need to go." I felt a tugging on my arm and turned to see a very red Tali pulling at me and a dazed Jake looking after her. "Before they read it. NOW." Syd, Shell, and Zak widened their eyes when they realized what that letter contained, and we fought through the crowd gathering around mom and dad. But Tali turned to me before I could get into the hall.

"No, Newt, you need to stay, make sure everything's safe for us. Give us a notice when it's clear, okay?" Tali asked frantically. I nodded with equal velocity, and the little kids scurried through the open doors with Jake and Tali at their heels. I imagine they were going to run up the stairs (keep in mind they were doing this in dress clothes, which wouldn't exactly win a track meet), trying to get as far away from mom and dad as possible, so then they wouldn't ask. So then they wouldn't get mad at us for not telling. I, meanwhile, was trying to get into a spot where I could see them and they couldn't see me. Tali could have stayed, she can be invisible, but nooooo, I had to stay because of the mind reading thing. I stood behind a plant (how's that for conspicuous?) and watched mom slip the golden "G" seal off of the envelope.

"What does it say?" I saw dad ask. "Can you guess?"

"Gimme a sec and we'll find out." Mom sounded a lot cooler than she looked as she started reading. Her face got redder with every paragraph, and by the end she could have been a lighthouse the way her cheeks were glowing. She passed the letter to dad without a word and scanned the crowd, looking for us. Hopefully she'd never find us so she couldn't ask for answers that she'd eventually get out of us. But just double checking, was this THE letter? I read it by refocusing my eyes.

"_Dear Mrs. Sabrina Griffiths,_

_We at the Genie Government would like to be among the first to congratulate you on your recent marriage to a Mr. Iggy Griffiths. However, now that you are eligible, there is a request we would like to make of you._

_As you are hopefully aware of, there have been rumors that genie population has been steadily decreasing. We regret to inform you that these rumors are indeed true. Genies have been less consent with settling down and starting a family, more content to use their powers in their job or the human world and not marry, let alone take care of children. We as a Government are trying to encourage the latter amongst our kind. Intelligence has told us that you are capable of producing children of a healthy sort, and so, Mrs. Griffiths, we would like you to participate in our repopulation program. Produce for us a child so he or she may be put to use as a genie. This action would be an extremely helpful act towards ensuring that the genie population will live for millenniums to come, and you would have a chance to begin a new life with your husband. Decline this requirement and we shall be required to have law take charge. We trust you are familiar with the punishments._

_Mrs. Griffiths, we at Genie Government want a steady population of genie families as to ensure that we shall always have enough people to man our jobs. Without your help we may not be able to do so._

_Sincerely,_

_Genie Government_"

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why mom was so ticked. I mean, these people just asked her to make a kid so then we'd be genies! In her mind she was calling those people some pretty bad names and cursing them until the day they took their last breath. Even when she was telling everyone it was just some congratulations and there was nothing to worry about she still looked ready to kill. And this is the attitude in which she saw me. Not exactly the most merciful person at that point.

I tried to run, but since Tali's the one with the disappearing powers, I couldn't get very far without the stupid super speed. Mom caught up with me through the waning crowd, and dad followed shortly after reading the letter. He looked just about as pissed as mom did. Great.

"Was there something you forgot to tell us?" Mom asked, trying to calm down.

"Well, maybe there was something…"

"Yeah, and it might be something we'd like to know." Dad added.

"Yes, but technically you don't NEED to know of this occasion in which a letter arrives requesting the extremely strange of you, so why should I feel obligated to let you know of something that you don't need to know? Unless you should turn out to need notice of it, in which case I would be happy to inform you of said occasion." I tried to act as much as Jack Sparrow (yes, we future kids watch him too, it's like the Star Wars situation) on this. Acting funny always loosened them up just a little bit. But they weren't buying it.

"_Get the rest of them. One of them might spill._" Dad told mom in his mind.

"NO!" I almost shouted before mom got them over here. "Don't get them, they left for a reason so then you wouldn't ask them because we knew you'd be mad that we didn't tell you, but you know now so there's no need to be mad!" I held my hands up in surrender, words spewing out of my mouth. That always happens when I'm nervous.

"So what this letter is saying is that you and Tali are…" mom started the questions.

"Genies. Not exactly." "_Tali get me out of here!_" I thought desperately. For once I realized what Tali was trying to block from happening. They can't know too much or the future would be all wrong!

"_Can't get you out now, they'll know I did!_" Gee Tali, are you always this helpful?

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?" mom asked.

"Can't tell you. Gotta go, bye!" I tried to head for the doors the rest of my group went through, but dad was faster (and this is from a kid who's 49 genie) and grabbed my wrist in a death grip.

"Do you mean go as in leave the room, or go as in _go_?" he wondered. Not exactly the question I thought he asked, in fact I thought he'd ask more about how we're not exactly genies and why we didn't tell him and mom about the whole note thing.

"I don't know, I just don't know, I only need to get out of here so you don't ask!" I muttered. This was a lot of pressure to take! I can't believe I volunteered for this.

"Let him go, he wouldn't tell you even if he wanted to." Tali! I turned around to see her and everyone else behind her, and together with Jake and Zak, she pried dad's fingers off of my throbbing wrist. And no, she's not the one with super strength, in case you were wondering. "Don't get mad at us, mom, we just didn't think you should know ahead of time. Everyone would expect you to be mad, so why make you fake it? And dad, glad you're wondering where we're going to go, but seriously, go ahead and not care about us, okay? In all technicalities we aren't even born yet."

"_You do know that you're extremely good at calming them down, right?_" I inquired.

"_I am? They usually don't listen._"

"_Apparently they do in the past._" I nodded towards them, who were thinking about what she said and calming down. Syd, Shell, and Zak were watching their expressions soften in confusion, and Jake was just sneaking peeks at Tali. Everyone was pretty impressed with how Tali can tame parents.

"Uh, Demi?" Oh. Crap. Please don't be Max, please don't be Max! But we had no luck, because when we spun around the entire flock was looking at us weird. Even Total was raising a furry eyebrow (for those of you who say a dog can't do that you haven't seen his expression). "Why did you just call Iggy and Rina mom and dad?" Max asked.

"You don't look like- oh, wait, you do actually look a bit like Rina, Demi! And Newt looks like a clone of Iggy, I wonder why that is? But that would be like impossible, it's gotta be a coincidence or something, I mean what are the odds that two kids could look like this one couple? And even then they'd need a time machine to get back and actually call them mom and dad when they weren't even born yet, unless Rina and Iggy actually did something like that, but they haven't even known each other that long it's been what, five years now, well they're thirteen so that's way off but then again if they're Rina and Iggy's they'd have to have powers too and one of those powers could be time…travel…so who are you anyways?" Aunt Nudge slowed to a stop when she realized that one or both of us could go back in time and say hi. Great, our cover is officially blown.

"And while you're at it, who are they?" Aunt Angel nodded to Jake, Syd, Shell, and Zak. We exchanged looks with mom and dad. Should we tell them? Probably should, the rest of us miss talking to the flock as our family and not our owners. But even if we do how are we going to explain this one?

**HA! And I thought I'd never finish it! Wait, it's over? I'm so happy there's going to be a third one. And just so you know, the third one is going to be in the kids' POV, like all the events in this story except in their POV and how they made sure and got their parents together. Plus I'm actually going to write beyond this chapter, like I'm going to show what happens after this evil CLIFFIE! Yes, I'm evil for giving you a cliffie as the end of a story. Please, feel free to vent your anger in a review, you know I love them even if they're mean! Well, not really mean, that's just unfair. I am officially giving you three days to review and then I post another chapter thanking everyone who reviewed. But who sent the most reviews? Whoever did gets a special prize! **

**But anywhose, review review REVIEW! It took me three weeks or so to write this because I kept changing it to please you guys, and you know I'd love to know if I actually did please you!**

**Longest. Chapter. EVER! It's like 8,700 words, yay me! And yay you guys, extra long chapter for my extra long updatelessness!**


	15. Three Way Tie and Interviews Gone Awry!

**I'm pretty sure all of us love getting reviews. Even those who haven't written a story would probably like some feedback on whatever they'd eventually write. And I always want to thank you guys so much that I'm going to dedicate a chapter to listing them! Plus I've gotten a few questions about the next book, so we'll have something like a press conference just to clear things up. Okay? Okay. Let's get started!**

**Just a note, I'm not sure I counted how many reviews everyone did, there's like twenty of you and one of me, but I double counted, so I think I got everyone. Here you go!**

_**For reviewing once:**_

**coffeelover369 (1)**

**DigiNinMon (1)**

**hrchristine (1)**

**missCeilidh (1)**

**Hallie Lynette (1)**

**SilverwingedShadow (1)**

**meepisms (1)**

_**For reviewing twice:**_

**hahahehe7 (2)**

**maximumlovr (2)**

_**For reviewing three times:**_

**maxride08 (3)**

**Just a bit crazy13 (3)**

**ISing4Him (3)**

_**For reviewing four times:**_

**S.L. Michaels (4)**

**MaxRideNut (4)**

_**For reviewing six times:**_

**Katie-3llen (6)**

_**For reviewing seven times:**_

**IssytheWriter (7)**

**xxApocalypsexx (7)**

**fang-is-yummy (7)**

_**For reviewing nine times:**_

**max ride girl (9)**

**ghj1 (9)**

_**For reviewing 11 times:**_

**Maximum Ride all the way (11)**

_**For reviewing 13 times:**_

**Bubble Blower (13)**

**DarkBlade98 (13)**

**Evil Angel of DOOM (13)**

**YAY! So glad we got that over with, that took an eternity to sort out. But holy crap, ladies and gentlemen, we have a three-way tie between Bubble Blower, DarkBlade98, and Evil Angel of DOOM for most reviews! What are the odds? Anyways, (ahem) to our winners, you three shall receive the grand prize: a free wish from Rina!**

**Rina: Just so you all know I still hate granting wishes except to friends and family…well, not so much family since they can do it themselves-**

**Iggy: HEY!**

**Rina: Sorry, Iggy, I meant like my parents. But you know I'd do anything for you!**

**Fang: We get it.**

**Rina: Oh, like you don't think the same things about Max.**

**Max: Really?**

**Rina: (nods) In fact he actually-**

**Me: Okay, Rina, please save it for the story! (backs away from Fang, who is giving Rina death glares)**

**Rina: Yeah, yeah. But you three made my writer happy, and my writer writes good things when she's happy, so I'll give you each one wish for that.**

**Me: Okay everyone, and a one, and a two, and a three and-**

**Max, Fang, Iggy, Rina, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Total, Jake, Newt, Tali, Syd, Shell, Zak (but as always, not so much Jake and Fang) : THANKS FOR READING OUR STORY!**

**Me: Oh, and before we get to our press conference about the new story, I also have a prize for max ride girl, ghj1, and Maximum Ride all the Way (you three wrote the next-most amount of reviews after our grand prize winners). COOKIES!**

**Syd, Shell: That Tali made!**

**Tali: (blushes) C'mon, I just made them when mom was helping me make stuff out of air…**

**Me: (takes cookie from one of plates, bites into it) Well if you "just made them" they're delicious!**

**Newt: You heard her Jake, taste one!**

**Me: Now you're just paraphrasing.**

**Newt: Ah, but paraphrasing means to summarize what something says, so you're agreeing with me that Jake needs to try a cookie! (shoves cookie into Jake's hands) Here, eat!**

**Jake: Why is it always me?**

**Gazzy: And why are you calling each other weird names?**

**Zak: Hey, I like my name and you should too!**

**Gazzy: Make me!**

**Rina: Okaaaaaaaaaay, let's go get some food, guys! (assisted by Iggy, shows a very confused flock to the door. Struggling occurs, but is resisted by Rina and Iggy)**

**Me: (waves) Thanks Rina! Hehehe, Zak was picking a fight with his own dad.**

**Syd, Shell: And his dad is still bigger than him!**

**Zak: But he doesn't know who I am so I actually get a fighting chance because when we fight he either lets me win if there's no point in him winning and when he wants to win there's no stopping him because he's like really good at fighting and you'd think I'd be better than him because I'm the next generation and all that but instead he is because he's older and stronger and could we go back to when I'm older than dad because-**

**Syd, Shell: (covers Zak's mouth with hands) We get it, thanks.**

**Newt: Eat the dang cookie, Jake!**

**Tali: Don't eat the dang cookie, it's not that good!**

**Jake: (shrugs, bites cookie, chews, swallows) Newt!**

**Newt: (rolls eyes) What?**

**Jake: Quit controlling me!**

**Newt: Give me one good reason. You like?**

**Jake: Well, yeah, actually. (to Tali) Are you sure you didn't get these at the store or something?**

**Tali: Positive.**

**Jake: Make cookies more often.**

**Tali: (blushes) Thanks. (snaps out of it, claps hands together) Okaaaaaaaaaay, to the press conference!**

**Newt: WHAT?**

**Tali: Seriously, we should probably go, I mean we don't want roughdiamond5 to be-**

**Newt: NO, I MEAN I SERIOUSLY CAN'T HEAR YOU BECAUSE OF JAKE'S EXTREMELY LOUD THOUGHTS ABOUT TALI-**

**Jake: (punches Newt's arm before he can say more)**

**Newt: Hey! (kicks shins)**

**Jake: Don't even think about it! (shoves)**

**Newt: I can read your mind, you'd have to not think about it for me to not think about it! (shoves back)**

**Me: Okay guys, leaving them to their fight, press conference!**

**Zak: Can I ref?**

**Tali: No. Go through the door already!**

**Me: Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, welcome to my press conference thingie! Now to answer some questions about the new story with…**

**Syd, Shell: Syd and Shell…**

**Zak: Me, Zak! But you should know that, I'm the one talking!**

**Tali: Tali. And Newt and Jake will be here in twenty five seconds, so-**

**Zak: I'll take that bet! Twenty five Mississippi, twenty four Mississippi (A/N twenty Mississippi's later…) three Mississippi-**

**Newt: (opens door) Jake isn't dead and neither am I, so be happy, everyone.**

**Zak: I still have two Mississippi's to go, so Tali was wrong! Go me, I win!**

**Me: Yeah, whatever. So let's have some questions! Jake?**

**Jake: No.**

**Me: Fine, Newt, pick a question at random, please?**

**Newt: …oh, here are a few good ones from S.L. Michaels! She's asking what it'll be called and when it'll be posted.**

**Me: That's easy. The title of the story will be called Tali's Tale-**

**Zak: Which isn't fair, because the story is about all of us, so why can't it have all our names in the title, I mean sure, Tali's the leader but what do I care no offense Tali can't we all be mentioned?**

**Syd: Yeah, can't we-**

**Shell: -be mentioned?**

**Newt: At least mention me, I'm her brother!**

**Me: Well what wordplay can you do with your guy's names?**

**Syd, Shell: Syd and Shell's Silly Story?**

**Zak: Zak Ramble's a Lot Story Thingie? Or is the Thingie part too much, I think it might be, maybe.**

**Newt: Newton and Natalie's Notorious, Naughty, and Nasty Narrative?**

**Jake: That might suggest something other than a T rating.**

**Newt: Everyone notice how Jake has no problem with Tali having the title all to herself.**

**Jake: (growls)**

**Tali: (raises eyebrow at Jake and Newt)**

**Me: See, Newt's suggestion might actually work, but Tali's Tale is short, sweet, and to the point. So no fighting the title, got it?**

**Newt, Syd, Shell, Zak: Yes m'am.**

**Me: And it's going to be posted a week or so after this because I still need to write the plot. But readers, any ideas or suggestions would be nice! Please, if you have anything that you'd like mentioned in the story, let me know!**

**Newt: Okay, here's a pen and paper. First, I want the Nobel Peace Prize Committee's van to break down in front of my house. I'll take care of what happens after that. Then I want Maddy mentioned in every chapter, got it? In fact, make her come on the trip too, maybe give her a few powers. And about Jake and Tali, you should probably-**

**Tali: She said READERS, not CHARACTERS!**

**Newt: But I'm reading the story!**

**Me: Suuuuure. Give me a review and I might consider those. But Maddy shall not be mentioned in this conference. You shouldn't even have mentioned her in your POV!**

**Syd, Shell: Well, he IS foreshadowing…**

**Zak: Yeah, and that might make people want to find out who she is!**

**Newt: I'll tell them who she is. (to readers) Listen up, Maddy is one of the-**

**Me: Newt, tell them anything else and I make you have huge acne problems that'll make Maddy run away screaming.**

**Newt: (covers face with hands) My face.**

**Me: But I control your face, so shut up or you'll need Neutrogena. Anyways, time for another question. Who wants to this time?**

**Syd, Shell: We'll do it!**

**Me: Fine, go ahead.**

**Syd: Okay, here's one from Evil Angel of DOOM!**

**Shell: She asks if there will be Fax. (sets down card, asks Syd) What's Fax again?**

**Syd: It's a combination of mom and dad's names. You know, romance between them.**

**Shell: Oh, right! Well, there'd have to be Mad to make us!**

**Syd: What's Mad?**

**Shell: Mom and dad. I just don't feel right calling them their names.**

**Syd: Fair enough, me neither! But I suppose we should ask Tali to take us to see our parents-**

**Shell: -so then there'll be Mad…**

**Syd, Shell: FIELD TRIP! Can we, Tali?**

**Tali: Maybe later.**

**Me: Well, now that that's answered, about the new story, a few people have been wondering about what the story will be about. Tali, care to explain?**

**Tali: Uh, suuuuure. Okay, so it's about how I take everyone back in time over spring break so we can get our parents together, and it's like behind the scenes of what happens to our parents.**

**Newt: Yeah, like how Jake saved Tali's and my existence when Uncle Gazzy…(sees glare roughdiamond5 gives him and shuts up)**

**Tali: Huh?**

**Jake: Keep talking…**

**Tali: Okay…? So anyways, it's how we got them together and used our powers to make sure nothing really bad happens to the future, and trust me, it can be pretty bad when we're not there, there was even that one time when- oh, right, can't say. But it's how we do everything. Much more interesting than it sounds, I promise! Plus you'll see what happens after the last chapter of this story, and we'll find out how Zak came to be adopted by Aunt Nudge and Uncle Gazzy.**

**Me: And just so we're clear, some scary and possibly unexpected things are going to happen. Like things not even these guys think will happen.**

**Tali: So tell us, roughdiamond5, any hints as to what will happen?**

**Newt: (gasps) NO, don't you even THINK about making her-**

**Zak: What, did you read her mind? What's going to happen?**

**Newt: She's going to make-**

**Me: ZIT TIME!**

**Newt: NEVER!**

**Me: EN GARDE! (pulls out sword-sized pencil)**

**Newt: OVER MY DEAD BODY! (takes out light saber (like from Star Wars), fighting ensists)**

**Zak: Any other questions? (winces as roughdiamond5 jabs Newt in gut) Ooh, that's gotta hurt, ladies and gentlemen!**

**Tali: Yes, you in the black shirt and jeans.**

**Black-shirt-and-jeans kid: Will you and Jake get together in the story?**

**Tali: Why would you care?**

**Black-shirt-and-jeans kid: Well, he's Max and Fang's kid, and you're Iggy and Rina's kid, so why not get together?**

**Newt: Yeah, why not- OW!**

**Me: You shall get acne, Newt, you can't fight for long!**

**Jake: Who is this kid, anyways?**

**Black-shirt-and-jeans kid: Roughdiamond5's brother! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Me: Oh, hi Brandon! What are you doing at the press conference?**

**Brandon: You're fighting all wrong, here, give me the pencil. (takes pencil, starts fighting (and winning) against Newt)**

**Newt: Hey, if you get to have your brother help then Tali gets to help me!**

**Me: You wish. Now, any other questions? Yes?**

**Lady in green dress: About how long will the new story be?**

**Me: I dunno guys, how much of your adventures will you force me to write?**

**Syd, Shell: All of it.**

**Zak: Yup, we're going to make your fingers fall off with everything that we're going to do.**

**Me: In that case put me down for fifteen chapters or so, maybe more, probably not less but there's a chance there'll be less. Yes, you?**

**Man in gray suit: Will there be romances other than Jake and Tali, otherwise known as Jali, in this new story?**

**Tali: Here's a question for you. Why is everyone obsessed with me and Jake when we're not even together?!**

**Zak: Because it's really fun to make you guys mad.**

**Jake: It worked. Done yet?**

**Syd: Oh, no.**

**Shell: We've still got a long way to go!**

**Jake, Tali: Great.**

**Zak: Ha, you're telepathic to each other!**

**Me: Newt, wanna tell the nice man about who I'm pairing you with?**

**Newt: Get (gasp) your brother (choke) off of me (wheeze) and maybe I will!**

**Me: Brandon, off the OC.**

**Brandon: No way, this is fun!**

**Me: You can go pig out on donuts in the break room with Connor!**

**Brandon: Bye! (jumps off of Newt's back and runs to break room) Wait, where's Connor?**

**Me: He's waiting for you in there. Oh, and Connor is one of my brother's friends.**

**Newt: Now what was the question?**

**Man in gray suit: Will there be romances other than Jake and Tali, otherwise known as Jali, in this new story?**

**Me: Now tell the nice man who I'm pairing you with.**

**Newt: You make me answer that and I kill you.**

**Me: (sticks tongue out at Newt) Say it or she'll never remember you. And I'll make Jake and Tali hate each other as long as they both live.**

**Newt, Tali, Jake, Syd, Shell, Zak: NO!**

**Jake: That's it, everyone tie her up! We're writing our own story and using her account to do it!**

**Tali (as everyone else ties up a struggling roughdiamond5): Jake, you lead?**

**Jake: Sorry, did you want to?**

**Tali (impressed): No, you go ahead, you're actually pretty good at this. **

**Jake: Nah, you know me, I never wanted to be a leader. Just use my plan and tell them what to do.**

**Tali: But you're-**

**Zak: Hate to break up the conversation but apparently writers have powers! (nods to roughdiamond5, who is making the ropes act like snakes and restrain them)**

**Jake: Wow, I guess Rina really is based off of her.**

**Tali: No kidding. (they both run to join in the battle for story rights. Focus changes to break room door as Brandon and Connor come out with armloads of donuts and Pixie Sitx, laughing maniacally)**

**Brandon: Best. Sugar rush. EVER!**

**Connor: Dude, your sister needs to hold press conferences more often, 'cause she's like 'blah blah blah' and we can be like 'WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' on a sugar rush and crash her interview! (looks at fighting on stage) Well how'd this go all screwy?**

**Brandon: Well Jake and Tali are probably mad since everyone wants to see them get together and they don't want their secrets blown. Newt's upset because my sister is going to make something bad happen to his crush, and Syd and Shell and Zak are probably just fighting so then they can make good stuff happen to them and maybe get Jake and Tali together. And of course Bre (A/N that's my nickname) is just fighting for control over her characters. And she might get her control because she just got powers out of nowhere.**

**Connor: (nods) Hey, wanna mess with the reporters?**

**Brandon: Beats doing homework! (they both drop the donuts/Pixie Stix, run up to the stage, get to the front and center, and start waving butts in air and saying strange/funny things)**

**Me: Okay everyone, hope the interview answered some questions! Brandon, Connor, I could use a hand!**

**Connor: No way, first those snooty reporters need a wakeup call! (pretends to fart in faces)**

**Brandon: Here's some perfume! (mimics Connor)**

* * *

**Disclaimer: My brother would never ask me about the romance between my character romances. I doubt he'd read this or even care, and I don't even think that he knows about a Newt other than the lizard and the guy from Cory in the House. But if he isn't reading it I figure it's safe to use him just for laughs.**

**Claimer: Given the opportunity, my brother and his friend Connor would almost definitely moon the audience.**

**See you at the sequel!**

**roughdiamond5**


	16. Author's Note, Sorry!

**Okay, I didn't want to do this but I really miss you guys. For those who have read the note I put in OGR or who have stuck with me until the end, you don't have to read this and you can just leave. (waits until those people are gone) Okay, guys, just for the record, I DID post the sequel, Tali's Tale, it's up and running if you want to read it.**

**Sorry again for the note, it's just that I noticed fewer and fewer people reading as the series goes on. I know I'm not the best author, but I'm hoping it doesn't mean I'm awful. You CAN tell me, you know, I've heard much worse things!**


End file.
